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Ever since Capt. Anoop Kumar Sharma took charge as CMD of Shipping Corporation of India, he has been working briskly to put the corporation back on track. In this brief interview he shares his plans
Q What were your first thoughts on being chosen to be at the helm of the Shipping Corporation of India?
I would think my biggest responsibility is to add to the top line and bottom of the company, thereby, increase its valuation for all the stakeholders. We would like to ensure everyone in the value chain is benefitted.
Q Given today’s economic scenario, what pockets would you identify for the Shipping Corporation of India to excel?
As one is aware, the bulk and container markets aren’t in the pink of their health. The tanker segment has been looking up of late. As an organisation, we are now looking to place our eggs in many baskets and we would like to expand and foray into the Atlantic region with out bulk cargo. These would be a defined mix of short, medium and long-term contracts. It is to help us take advantage of business in other markets when the Asian markets aren’t doing too well.
Q What top concerns would you look at addressing in the near term?
One of my key priorities is to ensure the fleet utilisation goes up for bulk, container and offshore segments. It is currently between 85-90 per cent and we would like to increase it even further. We just acquired a second-hand offshore vessel and we will be investing in another vessel shortly for operating them in the Indian seas. In addition, we have slated to expend around Rs 900 crore to strengthen our fleet in the offshore and tanker segment.
Q How would you position SCI among the other lines today and what role do you envisage for India’s national shipping carrier?
Currently, the national carrier represents 37 per cent of the Indian tonnage and we hope to breach the 6 million dwt mark in the current or next fiscal year, an aspiration that has been eluding us for a year now.
Q What practices from the private sector would you look at incorporating into SCI?
I would like to incorporate a culture of quicker decision making by bringing down the amount of paper work to be done. The best aspect about public sector administration is that everything is system driven. And in the private sector, it is all people driven. I would like to dovetail one into another and ensure the system works efficiently like a well-oiled machinery.
Q SCI embarked on creating a subsidiary for inland and coastal vessels. What opportunity do you see here?
We created a subsidiary in September and began our trial runs this fiscal using charter vessels. Depending on the infrastructure developed and made available for inland waterways, we will draft a business plan and invest in the coastal business.
Q At the policy level, what changes would you like seeing for the benefit of Indian vessels?
Shipping needs to be given an infrastructure status. Also, the duty on bunkers needs to be relaxed for bulk vessels as well. Currently the relaxation applies only for container vessels. There is a lot of crude, bulk, project cargo, coal and iron ore in large quantities waiting to be moved. Any rationalisation in taxes will help us move greater volumes of cargo along the coast.
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