ACRUS Shipping expands its global foot print | Daily News

ACRUS Shipping expands its global foot print

ACRUS Shipping (Pvt.) Ltd, a subsidiary of Acrus Group Colombo 2 has expanded their global foot print and launched their services all over India from last month.

The company was setup in 2010, mainly for shipping agency operations, for the first time expanded overseas by opening their first overseas branch in Singapore. “Since Singapore is considered a shipping and logistics hub we found partners and succeeding in further expanding to other countries like, UAE, Netherlands, South Africa and Gibraltar , Doha Qatar,” said Managing Director ACRUS Group, Kanchana Silva.

“There was also a high demand from several Indian companies to tie up with us and finally we inked an agreement an Indian counterpart to launch our services all over India,” he said.

He said that with the growing demand for Sri Lankan Sea Marshals the company also engaged in offering this service from Galle Harbour and to date has handled several crew changes bring valuable foreign exchange to Sri Lanka. “We do assist armed and unarmed security escort teams by arranging embarkation/disembarkation at Sea Port and clear Sea Marshals through necessary Customs /Immigration formalities at the Airport.”

The company also provides accommodation in Galle for ship crews.

“Acrus group over the past eight years have constantly adjusted their business strategy to keep up with the times and this has enabled the company, in addition to Shipping agency operations, to move into sectors such as chandelling, bunkering, under water repairs services and hull cleaning.”

“Looking ahead for the future, Acrus Group and Acrus Shipping will further expand to other shipping related activities, innovation and promotion of green development strategies.”

“The company is also supplying essentials for ships from all ports in Sri Lanka and for this purpose ACRUS Shipping branches have been set up in Hambantota, Galle, Trincomalee and Colombo.

We are now looking at opening our branches in all other ports in Sri Lanka, depend on the service demand,” said General Manager ACRUS Shipping, Dharshana Bodiyabaduge. He said that the HR is a major issue and to overcome this they had launched a program to recruit and train third year under graduates who pursue the Transport Economics and Commercial Shipping, Degree program at the Colombo University. “Currently there are several under graduates working with us and they will also get an opportunity to work in our foreign branches in future.”

He said that the company also started ‘Ship Lay Up’ services where they provide facilities for ships that are anchored in Sri Lankan waters for a long period of time. “Currently we are offering our services to two large ships anchored in Trincomalee.”

He said that today the local shipping industry is thankful to the government, is putting a hold on the ship liberalization proposal which would have had a severe negative impact in medium scale entrepreneurs like them.

“We are asking the government to offer us a tax concession for motor vehicles that are used for shipping transport sector as entertaining clients at all ports around the island is an important move parallel to port developments. We have started utilising domestic flight services from Colombo to Trincomalee to support aviation sector.” (AK)


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