Voyage To The Future: Sanmar Shipping Limited
Sanmar Shipping Limited (SSL) started as a division of Chemplast in November 1994. It acquired its first bulk carrier in February 1995 and subsequently diversified into clean petroleum product tankers in 1996.
Presently, Sanmar Shipping Limited has a fleet of six ships; two dry bulk carriers (Sanmar Phoenix and Sanmar Paragon), three clean petroleum product tankers (Sanmar Serenade, Sanmar Stanza and Sanmar Sonnet) and one stainless steel chemical tanker (Sanmar Majesty).
Major Oil Companies and Dry Cargo Owners routinely inspect and accept Sanmar ships for their trade. All tankers are double hulled, and are named in the lyrical series beginning with the letter ‘S’ – Serenade, Sonnet and Stanza. Interestingly, the names of bulk carriers start with the letter ‘P’ (Paragon, Phoenix).
“Shipping business is a lot more regulatory, and it is truly “transnational”, opines CV Subba Rao, who heads the Shipping business at Sanmar and has been with the Group since 1994. At Sanmar Shipping Limited the strategy has been to keep the downsides low and endeavour to cash in on the up sides as and when they occur. Since Shipping is a capital-intensive business, it could be catastrophic at times if one does not judiciously limit the downsides. “We had a euphoric 2007-2008 riding piggy back on the Chinese boom followed by a crashing market in 2009 stemming from a global recession – real extremities of business over a span of 24 months”, says Subba Rao.
Sanmar Shipping Limited’s fleet trades in such goods as iron ore, food grains and coal, clean petroleum products like jet fuel, kerosene and diesel, high specification chemicals, such as acrylonitrile, xylenes, vegetable oils and acids. “We believe that big is not necessarily better. We believe that buying a ship at the right price and ensuring the unit stays profitable over its life is more important than buying just for the sake of expansion, based on current data”, informs Subba Rao. Cautious in its assessment Sanmar Shipping takes adequate care in protecting shareholder interests. Sanmar Shipping is committed to meeting the challenges of an increasingly competitive environment in the global village and continues to stay focussed to its motto of ‘Safe Ships and Clean Seas’.
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