Logistics

Freightstar launches train service from Dhappar near Chandigarh to JNP
Wilson Sandhu in strategic alliance with Scan Global Logistics
CWC to expand presence in rail logistics—B. B. Pattanaik
APL IndiaLinx begins weekly service from ICD-Loni to Mundra Port
Arshiya International signs Rs 71-cr. initial deal with Kalmar
Hayleys Advantis' international logistics network expands in India
Panlloyd Logistics adroitly executes two intricate shipments

Freightstar, a part of ETA Star Group, has launched a train service from Dhappar near Chandigarh to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNP) in tandem with the Container Corporation of India (CONCOR), Punjab State Warehousing Corporation and FreightAids Pvt. Ltd.

At the trade meet are (from left) Mr S. Senthil Kumar, Mr K. Sathianathan, Mr H. C. Venkatesh, Mr R. S. Naik and Mr Kamlesh Gosai

The first reefer train was flagged off from Dhappar recently by Freightstar, in association with FreightAids Pvt. Ltd, and will cater to the needs of ex-im trade which need to ship containers to JNP with ceaseless connectivity.

The terminal at Dhappar will attract business from Chandigarh, and its surroundings. With the greater inflow of freight business, the present weekly service may be run twice a week very shortly.

Freightstar's Dhappar train service is in addition to its service from ICD-Loni to JNP, which was started last year. The company is striving to expand its network in a big way and wishes to spread its wings across the country.

The Dhappar terminal has the advantage of providing container services to the export fraternity in the vicinity of Chandigarh, which hitherto used to transport goods to Ludhiana, which was a cumbersome, time-consuming and costly affair.

Freightstar can now exploit the potential markets of Chandigarh, Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh by rendering quality services to its customers through seamless and integrated services between Dhappar and JNP.

ETA Freightstar will be commencing a regular rail service from the inland container depot (ICD) at Loni to the ABG Kandla Container Terminal Ltd (ABGKCTL) from this month. The Delhi-headquartered ETA Freightstar, which is part of the ETA Group, has a Category I licence to operate container rail services across India.

The service will facilitate ABGKCTL becoming the preferred port of the region in the near future, highlighted a release.

The trade meet commenced with a presentation by Mr S. Senthil Kumar, Terminal Manager of ABGKCTL, who explained the significance of this service and the operational modalities that would be followed for ICD-bound containers at the terminal, once the service starts.

Mr K. Sathianathan, CEO of ETA Freightstar, announced that the fixed-day, weekly service would commence with the flagging off of the first train from Loni in the first week of September.

He added that ETA Freightstar would be looking at opportunities to operate more trains to Kandla, depending on the requirement of the trade.

Mr R. S. Naik, Additional Commissioner of Customs, Mr Kamlesh Gosai, Area Manager, Western Railway, Gandhidham and Mr H. C. Venkatesh, Traffic Manager, Kandla Port, emphasised the importance of this service to the growth of the Port and the terminal.

It was emphasised that the service may prove to be a turning point for the ex-im trade, especially for those focused on the Middle East/Gulf locations. Lines using feeder connections operate from Mundra at present; a direct service from/to Kandla would be a huge boost, it was underscored.

Representatives from shipping lines, Customs, the Railways and the media graced the occasion in large numbers. The interactive session saw active participation from shipping line representatives who sought clarifications on various operational and Customs-related issues. 

	Wilson Sandhu in strategic alliance with Scan Global Logistics

Raising a toast to the success of the alliance are (from right) Mr R. S. Sandhu, Mr Peter Christensen, Mr Ole Moller Hansen, Mr Nirmal Sandhu, Mr Muneesh Chawla and Mr Bakshish Sandhu

Wilson Sandhu Logistics (India) Ltd (WSL), one of the leading international freight forwarders in India, and Denmark-headquartered Scan Global Logistics (SGL), one of Scandinavia's largest players in the logistics market, have entered into a strategic business alliance to offer a wide range of logistics services globally.

The aim is to become a market leader in a variety of sectors and locations, especially India, the US, Japan and Europe, including Scandinavia, by leveraging on the local and global expertise of the two companies, emphasised Mr R. S. Sandhu, Managing Director of WSL and Mr Ole Moller Hansen, CEO of SGL, at a get-together organised in Mumbai recently to mark the tie-up.

The strategic alliance is also focused on emerging growth markets such as China, Brazil, Korea, Hong Kong, Latvia, Lithuania, etc., they pointed out.

The get-together saw participation from a cross-section of the trade and other invitees, besides Mr Peter W. Christensen, Director (Seafreight), SGL, WSL representatives, including Mr Bakshish Sandhu and Mr Nirmal Sandhu, Directors, Mr M. C. Banerjee, Executive Vice-President, Mr Najeeb Kadri, Senior General Manager (Oceanfreight), Mr K. Subramanyam, Chief Financial Officer, and Mr Muneesh Chawla, Managing Director of Blue River Capital.

"The alliance between the two IATA/FIATA and NVOCC-licensed organisations gives SGL a strong base in India and ensures WSL optimal international opportunities with global representation", Mr Hansen underscored.

He also opined that in a fast-growing market like India, it was the better strategy to tie up with a strong local partner, like WSL, rather than deal with the uncertainties of setting up one's own office.

With this alliance, WSL and SGL would aim at achieving growth targets of 20-30 per cent and pave the way towards an IPO, Mr Sandhu disclosed. The combined efforts of WSL and SGL would be to mainly target industries like automobiles, chemicals, electronics, consumer goods, fur, relief, pharmaceuticals and hi-tech corporate companies.

With both groups having tremendous exposure and industry experience in total logistics, supply chain management and cost reductions, IT solutions, EDI, etc., for over 20 years, it is anticipated that this corporate global alliance will yield the expected growth and meet shareholder expectations.

The ISO 9001:2000-accredited Wilson Sandhu Logistics believes in being a niche player offering comprehensive services in fields like automobiles, machinery, equipment engineering, pharmaceuticals, textile products and specialised projects for forwarding. It has a network of 35 offices in India and a 100 per cent subsidiary in Germany.

Having some of the leading corporate names and industrial houses as clients, WSL's turnover has been increasing exponentially year after year.

Scan Global Logistics is one of the largest freight forwarders in Scandinavia, having presence in 16 countries with 43 offices. 

The Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) is looking at consolidation and ex-panding its presence in rail logistics, according to Mr B. B. Pattanaik, its newly-appointed Chairman and Managing Director (CMD).

Mr Pattanaik assumed charge last month after the superannuation of Mr N. K. Choubey, the previous CMD.

Mr Pattanaik has had an illustrious career of 29 years in public sector undertakings (PSUs) and the Union government. Prior to this appointment, he was CMD of National Seeds Corporation (NSC). During his tenure, he turned NSC around, with the company achieving its highest profit and turnover. Having earlier worked with CWC as Executive Director (Personnel), his expertise in various departments of the Corporation would be an added asset.

Speaking to The Link on the sidelines of a get-together organised in Mumbai by Mr S. K. Tyagi, Regional Manager (Navi Mumbai), CWC, to introduce him to the trade, Mr Pattanaik stressed that since efficient rail logistics was the demand of the trade, focusing on it was the need of the hour.

Towards this end, CWC is in the process of setting up rail terminals at Kalamboli (operational by the first week of September), at its CFS logistics park near JN Port, at its Vashi bonded warehouse and at a Railways’ facility in Jogeshwari in Mumbai.

CWC’s subsidiary, Central Railside Warehouse Co. Ltd, had some time back inked memoranda of understanding (MoUs) to set up 22 railside warehouses, of which 12 are currently fully functional and 10 in different stages of completion, Mr Pattanaik disclosed.

The CMD also pointed out that CWC, which has a Category 1 licence to operate container freight trains on pan-India basis, intends to commence services between its inland container depot (ICD) at Loni and Mundra and Visakhapatnam Ports.

It currently operates 4 rakes a week either side between ICD-Loni and JN Port.

CWC has also diversified into port infrastructure, Mr Pattanaik highlighted, and has expressed interest in JN Port’s 4th box terminal as part of the consortium also comprising SCI, CONCOR, Hind Terminals, MSC and the Sharaf group. Earlier, the consortium had bid for Ennore Port’s container terminal.

CWC would continue with its policy of tying up with ‘‘dependable business partners’’ for increasing productivity at its ICD and CFS facilities, Mr Pattanaik said. Such an arrangement is currently in place with regard to its logistics park near JN Port and CFSs at Mundra and Adalaj, near Ahmedabad.

The get-together saw participation from some of the leading lights of the maritime, cargo and logistics fraternity. Among them were Mr S. S. Hussain, Chairman of JN Port, Mr A. K. Bal, Deputy Chairman of Mumbai Port, Mr N. Sasidharan, Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Customs Zone II, Mr S. Hajara, CMD of SCI, Mr R. Radhakrishnan, President of BCHAA, Mr Mukesh Oza, President of the Samsara Group, Mr Jhingron, General Manager, Western Railway, Mr Mittal, Chief Operations Manager, Central Railway, Mr Bhavesh Gandhi of SKIL, Mr Ajay Khera, ex Executive Director of CWC and currently Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Horizon Country Wide Logistics Ltd, and Mr Mark Fernandes, Chairman of IMC’s Shipping and Aviation Committee.

And playing gracious hosts were Mr Tyagi, Major Santokh Singh, Regional Manager, Mumbai, and other CWC officials. 

ICD-Loni

IndiaLinx, the container train service being run by India Infrastructure & Logistics, has begun services to Mundra Port with the maiden run being flagged off from the inland container depot (ICD) at Loni recently.

India Infrastructure is a joint venture between Singapore-based APL and India's HIPE.

This will be a weekly service, the transit time being 60 hours in each direction, a company statement explained.

Launched in May last year, IndiaLinx has been offering services, six per week, between ICD-Loni and Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNP).

The cargo inducement, particularly exports, between Northern India and Mundra was encouraging, the statement said.

As part of its diversification plan, IndiaLinx will also shortly launch additional services from the ACTL terminal near Faridabad.

Two more rakes, one in September and the other in October, are proposed to be acquired bringing the total number of rakes to nine.

The ACTL terminal, a container freight station (CFS) being upgraded into a railway terminal by a private operator, is expected to be ready for operation by this month-end.

During June-December 2007, the traffic throughput of IndiaLinx service was around 12,000 TEUs, which is expected to increase four-fold this year.

Between January and July, the cargo throughput exceeded 27,000 TEUs.

Arshiya International Ltd, a global supply chain and logistics infrastructure services company, has signed a purchase deal worth Rs 71 crore with Finnish equipment manufacturer, Kalmar Industries (part of Cargotec Corporation), to supply 7 E-One+ rubber-tyred gantry cranes (RTGCs) and 10 DRF450 reachstackers.

The equipment is intended to be deployed for cargo/container handling at Arshiya's free trade warehousing zones (FTWZs) and rail sidings.

This initial deal is part of the first wave of purchase orders made against the company's announcement to invest approximately Rs 2,800 crore in its logistics infrastructure (FTWZs) and rail business.

The equipment will help Arshiya achieve the maximum productivity, reliability and cost efficiency while also meeting the toughest environmental standards on pollution, discharges, noise, safety and working environment. For further fuel savings and reduced emissions, Arshiya has additionally opted for cranes fitted with variable speed generator (VSG) systems.

Arshiya plans to establish 5 FTWZs in India (Mumbai, Delhi, Nagpur and at an undisclosed location in the South) integrated with container freight stations, and one in the Middle East.

The first of the FTWZs is a 180-acre zone in Panvel, near Mumbai, entailing an investment of approximately Rs 1,200 crore, which will be completed by March 2011.

Arshiya additionally has announced a Rs 1,600-crore investment to connect the company's pan-India rail siding and warehouse networks and FTWZs through a dedicated rail network.

Towards this end, it has placed an order for 75 rakes (3,375 wagons), which will make it the largest private rail operator in the country by January 2010. 

Civaro Freight India Pvt. Ltd is a wholly-owned company of Civaro International Ltd and functions as its arm in India with its corporate office in Chennai. Civaro International Ltd is the flagship international integrated logistics service provider, functioning as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Hayleys Advantis Group.

Civaro covers key metros of the North-West [Nhava Sheva, Mundra, Kandla, Pipavav, Ahmedabad, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Ludhiana, Dadri, Pune, and Delhi as well as the North Central Region's (NCR) inland container depots (ICDs) such as Tughlakabad (TKD) and Patparganj (PPG)] and South-East (Bangalore, Hyderabad, Cochin, Visa-khapatnam, Coimbatore, Tuticorin and Kolkata) which are coordinated and managed through the two regional offices in Chennai and Mumbai, respectively.

Civaro is internationally covered with own offices in US West Coast, US East Coast, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Fiji Islands as well as own representatives in Western Europe, Bangladesh, Russia/CIS, Hong Kong and China.

While using its own Bill of Lading (B/L), which is insured by the TT Club of UK and FMC registered (to facilitate shipments in and out of the US) for all shipments, Civaro also adopts state-of-the-art integrated IT systems to support its global operations.

Backed by over 50 years' experience, Civaro is evolving constantly to meet the demands of rapidly-growing logistics needs.

Civaro Freight India offers ocean and air freight (imports and exports), inland transportation, warehousing and distribution management, Customs clearance and supply chain management as well as handling of project cargo. 

The column for Dammam being handled

Panlloyd Logistics, which offers complete door-to-door logistics solutions to and from India, with special focus on turnkey projects, recently successfully handled two such projects at Mumbai Port.

While the first involved the shipment of 56 crates, each measuring 75 ft in length, to Masan, South Korea, which was done via Singapore, the second was a project for transporting 2 columns of 93 ft each for a chemical plant in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

The company management, which includes Mr Manish Joshi (Chairman), Mr Kashyap Sejpal (Managing Director), Mr Pawan Asher (Director-Commercial) and Mr Dishant Dhankee (Director-International Affairs), believes in being innovative, keeping pace with market requirements, setting realistic goals and working diligently towards them.

As a shipping agent, Panlloyd is the agent for Ocean Empire Lines, Singapore, which caters to the Gulf, Far East and South-East Asia. As a project cargo specialist, it owns a fleet of dry vans, flat racks, platforms and open tops for safe carriage of project cargo to worldwide destinations. Internationally, Panlloyd Logistics has a network of agents in 80 countries.

Headquartered in Mumbai, it has branches in Ahmedabad, Indore, Vadodara, Kolkata, Chennai, Kandla, Delhi, Ludhiana, Hyderabad and Nagpur. It recently moved to a bigger and convenient location in Mumbai to serve customers better. 

52/54, Mint Road, 3rd Floor,
Near GPO, Opp. Citi Finance, Fort, Mumbai - 400 001.
Ph: 022-2261 3873/2267 9798/2263 2612/13 Fax: 91-022-22679795
Internet: http://www.eximin.net