Samudera Shipping Line opens its office in Mumbai


Samudera Shipping Line Ltd (SSL), a listed company with the Stock Exchange of Singapore, has opened its office in India. The office was inaugurated here on Friday, March 12, by Mr Aloysius Soebagjo Windoe, Corporate Managing Director, Shipping Group, SSL, Mr Dhrubajyoti Das, Executive Director, Investor Relations, and Mr Adith Wardhana, Regional Director. The office has the status of a Regional Office, and will oversee Samudera's operations in the Indian Subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh).

Speaking at a get-together organised to celebrate the occasion, Mr Windoe said that the starting of the new office was but a small step in the process of continuous upgradation and innovation of its services in India. Mr Windoe remarked that Samudera had grown "considerably" in India since it first came here in 1995, for which he expressed his gratitude to the ports and the line's customers and well-wishers.

While "rededicating" Samudera's commitment to the Indian market, he emphasised that the line was keen on further strengthening its relationship with customers by enhancing its proficiency in the shipping and logistics sector in India.

Drawing an inference to 'India Shining', Mr Windoe said that Samudera too would like to be a part of the process so that the "shine is spread and keeps growing".

Earlier, in his address, Capt. Shakti Menon, Director, Samudera Shipping Line (India) Pvt. Ltd, said that having its own office in India would bring Samudera closer to the trade, who, he stressed, were its constant source of encouragement and support.

While highlighting the fact that Samudera's progress in India has been steady and enduring, Capt. Menon said that it would be the line's continuous endeavour to upgrade services in India. He expressed confidence that it would be able to live up to the expectations of the trade in this important market.

Samudera is an intra-Asia line serving the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent in the West, South-East Asia and Indo-China at the centre and the Far East to the North. This extensive network of services is run from its headquarters in Singapore, with able support from its own offices in Dubai, Bangkok, Malaysia, Jakarta and Shanghai.

Samudera provides feeder services to main line operators between the deep-harbour "hub" ports and the outlying "spoke" ports. It also provides inter-region and intra-region container shipping services to the end users, i.e. the manufacturers, buyers, exporters, importers, etc.

Its regular and punctual services connect the ports of South-East Asia and the Indian Subcontinent with Singapore, while from Dubai it runs the intra-Gulf service serving the "spoke" ports in the Upper Gulf region as well as regional services linking the Gulf region with the Indian Subcontinent. Serving several major ports in China, Samudera's Far East service acts as a bridge between South-East Asia and China reflecting the growing intra-Asia trade.

Besides, SSL's fully-owned subsidiary, Foremost Maritime Pte Ltd, which is headed by Mr Dhrubajyoti Das as Managing Director, provides regional industrial shipping services for liquid, gas and dry bulk cargoes. The get-together was well-attended by a wide cross-section of people from the trade and maritime fraternity, including port officials, main line operators, shipping agents, forwarders, custom house agents, importers and exporters, etc.