Charting new horizons Great Eastern Shipping

CHARTING

NEW HORIZONS

Great Eastern Shipping is India’s largest private sector shipping company. Philip Yorke takes a closer look at a company that continues to outperform its rivals with its vision of the future and a commitment to deliver exceptional value and customer satisfaction.

Great Eastern Shipping (G E Shipping) is India’s most successful shipping service provider and was founded by two families, the Sheths and the Bhiwandiwallas, in 1948. The two families decided to start their own shipping company in order to help expand the reach of their various trading businesses. As entrepreneurs with a clear vision of the future, the company began by purchasing the mothballed ‘liberty ship’ SS Fort Ellis and quickly moved from providing sea-logistic services to diversifying into offshore oil field services and in 1949 became the first Indian company to place an order for construction of ships at the Kobe Shipyard in Japan.

G E Shipping has two main business activities: Shipping and Offshore Services. The shipping business is concerned with the transportation of crude oil, various petroleum products and gas, as well as dry bulk commodities. The offshore business provides services to oil companies, which involve carrying out offshore exploration and production activities through its wholly owned subsidiary, Greatship (India) Limited.

The company’s shipping business operates under two main divisions: dry bulk carriers and tankers. A sizeable proportion of GE’s tanker fleet enjoys approvals from oil giants such as Shell, BP, Exxon Mobil and Chevron Texaco among others. Backed by a distinguished clientele, which comprises business leaders, International oil companies and governments, the division has earned the status of being the most preferred shipping service provider. The company is fully accredited to ISO 9001 by the governing body, Det Norske Veritas (DNV) as well as receiving other industry certifications.

Expanding rig capabilities

From the very beginning, GE Shipping embarked upon a strategy to maximise its product and service offerings. The latest investments in offshore drilling rigs include

the 350ft, state-of-the-art ‘Jack-up-rig’ ‘Greatdrill Chetna’ which was delivered on 2nd March 2011. This KFELS V B Jack-uprig is capable of drilling HPHT wells up to 30,000ft depth in most parts of the world. It is the world’s most advanced cyber-based rig affording operators the latest drilling technology, equipment and systems. With the delivery of ‘Greatdrill Chetna, Greatship (India) and its subsidiaries own and operate four PSVs seven AHTSVs, three MPSSVs and two Jack-up-rigs. The company also has an order book of eight new vessels including two MSVs in India, four ROVSVs in Sri Lanka and two 150 TBP AHTSVs in Singapore as well as one 350ft jack-up-rig in Dubai.

In addition Greatship India has also taken delivery of the new ‘Greatship Rashi’ a platform/ROV Support vessel from the Colombo Dockyard Plc. in Sri Lanka. This is a Class II DP vessel and has been built to comply with the new SPS Code 2008 and environmental Protection and Crew Comfort notations according to Lloyd’s Register of Shipping and is fully capable of supporting offshore exploration and production duties.

Delivering more value

During the last decade GE Shipping has almost doubled its fleet of support vessels and tankers. In February and March 2011 alone the company acquired three new, general and purpose-built vessels in addition to placing orders for other key support vessels and tankers. In February 2011 the company took delivery of its new Kamsarmax dry bulk carrier ‘Jag Aarati’, of about 81,000 tons deadweight and built at STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co.Ltd. South Korea.

In March 2011 Greatship (India) Limited took delivery of a new building Supramax Dry Bulk Carrier ‘Jag Rishi’ of about 57,000dwt and built at COSCO (Zhoushan) Shipyard in China. With the introduction of ‘Jag Rashi’ the company’s fleet now stands at 34 vessels, comprising 27 tankers, of which 10 are crude oil carriers, sixteen product tankers and one LPG carrier. In addition the company has seven others including one Capesize tanker, one Kamsarmax, one Panamax, three Supramax and one Handymax dry bulk carriers aggregating 2.63 million tons deadweight.

A foundation built on excellence

In 1993, as a tribute to the company’s founder, following his untimely death in 1992, GE Shipbuilding established the Vasant J Sheth memorial foundation to sustain his ideals and philanthropic obligations in relation to maritime education and social and environmental issues. At 29 years of age, Vasant Sheth was the youngest ever president of the Indian National Shipowner’s Association. Furthermore, he was awarded a Norwegian Knighthood in 1988 and posthumously given the Varuna Award in India in 1993.

The foundation’s mission is to engage in projects that promote maritime conservation and education as well as the welfare of coastal communities in India. The foundation supports institutions, libraries, reading rooms, museums and various courses and conferences. The foundation also undertakes to assist and support research and training programmes, as well as to award scholarships and to disseminate information and literature to publish books and newspapers. In addition, it helps to establish, maintain and conduct financial assistance for individuals and institutions engaged in the shipbuilding, marine engineering industries and the conservation of the world’s oceans. n