The largest shipping company in the country, the state owned, Shipping Corporation of India Ltd. (SCI) took delivery of a Supramax Bulk carrier, m.v. Vishva Diksha this morning. The vessel is the last of six Supramax bulk carriers which SCI had on order at the Chinese yard at STX (Dalian) Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., part of the world renowned STX Offshore and Shipbuilding group of Korea.
SCI had placed orders for these vessels in December 2007. These vessels were ordered as part replacement of SCI’s existing Daewoo series Handymax bulk carriers which were built in 1986 / 87. With induction of these vessels the overall age profile of SCI’s bulk carriers has improved significantly to 6 years. m.v. Vishva Diksha has a gross tonnage of 33,185 tonnes and deadweight of 57,132.5 tonnes. The vessel has been classed with DNV and IRS and has been built to comply with the latest and most stringent international regulations.
SCI took delivery of 12 new buildings in the last fiscal. Eight of these were product tankers and four Aframax crude oil tankers. During the same period the company disposed two product tankers and four crude oil tankers.
The world economy is presently reeling under the recessionary pressure. Although India is not growing at levels touched before the downturn, it is still on a reasonably healthy growth trajectory. Industrial and infrastructural development play a major role to sustain this growth. As a national carrier, SCI has been aiming to increase its presence in India’s mushrooming dry bulk trade and strengthen its bulk carrier fleet which would help SCI contribute to this growth.
With addition of this vessel, SCI’s fleet strength stands at 77 vessels of 5.58 million DWT. Presently SCI’s fleet consists of 20 crude oil tankers of 2,358,122 DWT, 15 product tankers of 952,728 DWT, one chemical tanker of 33,058 DWT, two gas carriers of 35,202 DWT and four VLCCs of 1,274,175 DWT. Besides, the company has 13 bulk carriers of 685,255.3 DWT, seven container vessels of 255,845 DWT, 13 offshore vessels of 24,031DWT and two passenger-cum-cargo vessels of 5,303 DWT.
Acquisition of m.v. Vishva Diksha is in line with SCI’s strategy of maintaining a modern and young fleet of vessels. The Company has 25 vessels on order at present, 13 of which are scheduled for delivery by the end of 2012.
In the offshore sector, SCI presently has a fleet of 13 vessels of which 9 were acquired during the eighties. These vessels have been dedicatedly serving the oil exploration and production sector in India for over 25 years. As a national carrier, SCI has been aiming to increase its presence in India’s offshore sector. To promote Indian ship building industry, SCI had ordered four AHTSVs of 120T BP capacity (two in June 2009 and two in February 2011) and two PSVs with Cochin Shipyard on nomination basis. The service of these vessels would be crucial to the E & P operators in the Indian Offshore sector.
Source: Maritime Professional