Mumbai - Ben Line Agencies (India) Pvt. Ltd hosted a trade get together in Hotel Trident, Mumbai on 11th December 2015 on successful completion of 10 years of operations in India. To grace this occasion, Mr. William Dickon Addis, Finance Director - Ben Line Agencies had especially flown from its Group HQ in Singapore representing its global management.
Established in the year 1825, it began first operating from Edinburgh. It began an exploratory voyage to Chinese and Japanese Ports signifying its first foray into the Far East during 1859 which later went on to become its main trading route by setting up own network in key places like Japan, Malaysia and Singapore. Subsequently the management decided of owning large Container Vessels to enhance its business operations. However after 1987, the management made a strategic decision to come out from the vessel owning and began seeking outside shipping agency principals to complement the in-house core business activity of Container Liner Shipping and thus Ben Line Agencies was established. Ben Line Agencies continues to be in the agency business completing almost 30 years and has a strong presence existing from China and Far East. Currently Ben Line Agencies has a total strength of nearly 125 offices spread across the Asian Continent having presence in 16 countries and 23 offices spread across India. In India Ben Line Agencies represents companies like Swire Shipping, United Africa Feeder Lines, FESCO TG and Japan Oil Transportation (JOT) an ISO Tank Operator new to India which is expanding right from Japan till India.
Speaking exclusively to Daily Shipping Times, Capt. K. G. Ramakrishnan Managing Director, Ben Line Agencies (India) Pvt Ltd highlighted its business segments that it operates in by saying, “we have presence in Port Agency, Liner Agency, Offshore Service and Project Logistics verticals”.
The company covers almost all the leading port across India providing our Agencies services. In fact with strong presence across India Ben Line Agencies is able to cover almost 37 Ports in India. Under Liner Agency it is already representing MLOs for both Containerized and Break-Bulk Cargo. Recently the company also started handling ISO Tanks for South East Asia, China, Korea, Taiwan and Japan. The other verticals of Ben Line Agencies is of Offshore Support Services catering to Oil & Gas segment apart from representing almost all the undersea cable laying companies (Alcatel, NEC, GMSL) that are present in India, which is a very specialized business with high growth potential in future.
The company through its vertical of Ben Line Project Logistics (BLPL) provides tailor made logistics solutions designed to move large and small project shipments from the origin point to job site for companies involved in oil & gas, petrochemicals, power generation, mining, construction heavy industries and renewable sectors. It has a strong clientele in excess of 50 companies in project logistics business.
Ben Line Agencies (India) also do have a presence in Ship Broking and Commercial services focusing only on few categories in India though it's at a smaller level.
Speaking about the growth of different verticals, he said, “Port Agency business is steadily growing. The growth in Offshore Support Services has declined given the slowdown in the oil and gas sector but any new announcement by Oil major like ONCG or Reliance may pick up the growth momentum of this business. The Projects Logistics business too has slowed down currently given the slowdown in the manufacturing sector but given the fact that India requires huge infrastructural supports going forward we are very optimistic about this vertical”. The Undersea cable laying business has immense growth potential in future he further added.
In fact given the global slow down almost all the business activities of all the major companies in Shipping sector have been affected and Ben Line Agencies is no exception to it opined Mr. Ramakrishnan.
He went on say, so one has to be very patient and wait for the good times to come because India has huge potential going forward as it is one of the few economies in the world that is expected to do well despite the global slowdown and hence we remain optimistic about our future growth.
