Shipping Corp to hire three container ships

Shipping Corp. of India Ltd (SCI), India's biggest ocean carrier, will hire three container ships from the market for periods ranging from three-five years as it looks to start new services on the back of a turnaround in global container trade. The revival helped the company return to profits during the April-June period, its first in about six quarters. SCI, the national flag carrier, made a profit in its container business for the first time in about 10 years. The state-run firm's container division reported an operating profit of Rs26.21 crore in the first quarter compared with a loss of Rs107.96 crore a year ago. In the year to March 2010, the container division had reported an operating loss of Rs225.09 crore. The gains in its container shipping division boosted the company's overall net profit by 60% to Rs191.49 crore during the first quarter from the year-ago Rs119.92 crore. SCI currently runs a fleet of eight container ships--five that it owns and three that have been hired from the market. These ships are used to run container-shipping services to Europe, China , Hong Kong and West Asia. S. Hajara, SCI chairman and managing director, said better freight rates in the container-shipping business were the primary reason for the turnaround. "We had also initiated several steps including carrying out repairs in India, lowering idle time for containers and other cost-cutting measures," Hajara said. The turnaround of SCI's container business assumes significance because it is the only Indian company that runs long-haul container operations that could act as a gamechanger in Read More>>