Ceylon Shipping Corporation to diversify into new ventures

Ceylon Shipping Corporation Ltd. (CSC), the National Sea Carrier of Sri Lanka will venture into opening a warehouse for handling of LCL cargoes and Multi Country Consolidation, said Assistant General Manager of Ceylon Shipping Corporation Ltd, Yamuna Wettasinghe speaking to biz shipping.

“There is another business opportunity created by the Budget 2017 and that is operating of a warehouse for handling of LCL cargoes and Multi Country Consolidation. CSC has already invited Expression of Interests (EOI) from local and foreign investors to join hand with CSC to operate this lucrative business,” she said.

CSC presently owns and operates two Ultramax dry bulk vessels with a dead-weight capacity of 63,000 MT. which are employed to transport coal to Puttalam thermal power plant. During the monsoon period the vessels have been successfully deployed in the open charter market with more than 95% utilization of the vessels after delivery from Shipyard last year, having continued operational profits from all voyages, she said.

“In diversification of business activities, CSC has lined up with a number of projects to develop under public private partnerships. The bunker prices are much higher in the port of Colombo than other regional ports such as Singapore due to the fact that the common onshore storage capacity is limited. If we could enhance the volume we may able to offer cheaper prices in Colombo as in Singapore thereby attracting more ships for bunkering in Colombo. In order to increase the capacity we have proposed to the Government to operate a floating bunker storage vessel outside the port limits and to offer the buyers or vessels competitive rates,” she said.

Ceylon Shipping Corporation’s core business is to build, purchase, charter and hire vessels to fulfill the national requirement, she explained.

“We hope to enter in to container feeder market also at the appropriate time,” she added.