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Shipping Corporation of India has signed the Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Shipping for the financial year 2016-17. The MoU was signed by Shri Rajive Kumar, IAS, Secretary (Shipping) and Capt. B.B. Sinha, Chairman and Managing Director, Shipping Corporation of India.
The MOU is based on the MOU guidelines 2016-17 issued by the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE). It consists of parameters drawn on the prescribed evaluation criteria and factors such as capacity and its expansion, business environment, projects under implementation have been considered. SCI has set ambitious, growth oriented and aspirational targets against these parameters keeping its growth plans and objectives in view. These are also in line with the vision of the Ministry of Shipping and the Government of India to escalate the growth for the Maritime sector in India. The MoU will be periodically reviewed by the Ministry and the performance of the PSU would be evaluated and ratings awarded at the end of the financial year.
The shipping industry is cyclical and is presently experiencing a down turn. The freight rates have come under pressure due to overcapacity of ships and are subject to a lot of volatility. Despite unfavourable market conditions and down turn being faced by the shipping industry in general, the SCI has taken proactive measures for sustained growth in these challenging times including costs-saving and has reported a consolidated net profit of Rs.389.4 crores for the financial year 2015-16.
SCI has ambitious CAPEX plans in 2016-17 to augment its tonnage through acquisition of second hand vessels. SCI has been entrusted with the management of ONGC’s MODUs ‘Sagar Vijay’ and ‘Sagar Bhushan’ for a period of six years. It has also been entrusted with the technical management of A&N owned 17 Foreshore vessels.
SCI is maintaining its focus on coastal trade mainly in coastal crude transportation and transportation of coal to meet increased demand of power generation. It is also concentrating on increasing its presence on coastal and near coastal trade and has restructured its SMILE service synergizing SCI’s services with M/s. Shreyas’ services to seamlessly link the East Coast and West Coast of India to Persian Gulf. It has also restarted India-Myanmar shipping service and talks are on for including South East Asian ports in the service. SCI is also participating in the movement of project cargo especially in the defense and power sector.
To take advantage of the increasing opportunities in Inland Waterways, SCI has signed an MOU with Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) during the Maritime India Summit 2016 to undertake inland waterways transportation on National Waterways 1, 2 & 5.
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