Their first own cellular container vessel
Monday, March 08, 2010

BSN Network / Mumbai

M.V. Caravel Pride first cellular container vessel owned by the Chennai-based multimodal transport company, Caravel Logistics Pvt. Ltd was launched from Tuticorin Port on March 1. Mr G. J. Rao, Chairman of the Tuticorin Port Trust (TPT) launched the vessel, which has been deployed on the container service between Tuticorin-Jebel Ali-Mundra-Cochin-Tuticorin.

The vessel will make two calls every month at Tuticorin Port. It will take 5 to 7 days for the cargoes to reach their destination at Jebel Ali. Its fixed-day schedule will help customers plan their shipments with certainty of cargo movement.

The M.V. Caravel Pride is a 585-TEU capacity vessel, which is capable of transporting varied goods including refrigerated containers, as well as oversized cargo on special containers.

The vessel was acquired at a cost of Rs 25 crore through private equity by BTS Investments, Switzerland. The company expects to enhance its revenue by Rs 40 crore through this initiative. The vessel was built at the Fosen Mekaniskw Verksreder Shipyard, Sweden, under the rules of one of the world’s leading classification societies, the German Germanischer Lloyd.

“This new venture is a step in the right direction towards our vision of becoming a holistic logistics company providing best-in-class service to our customers across every service vertical we cater to. With international cargo freight volume increasing by 20 per cent year-on-year, we believe that this initiative will boost Caravel’s topline,” said Mr Saju Chacko, Managing Director of Caravel Logistics.

Caravel Logistics started operations in 1994 out of a single office, as a freight forwarder, NVOCC agent, custom house agent and stevedore for companies like Bengal Tiger Line. It then entered its own NVOCC arena with agents in Singapore, Malaysia and Colombo, and today has multiple agents representing it across multiple locations.

In 1996, Caravel entered the trailer transportation business with just one trailer. Today, it has 35 own containers and operates over 100 trailers. Caravel is today an NVOCC, has a custom house agency and freight forwarding agency, is a multimodal transport service provider and also provides warehousing facilities. These operations are supported by its 18 own offices at Major Ports and cities across India, the UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia, over 15 overseas agents and 300+ staff.

Sixty-five per cent of Caravel’s revenue is currently derived from its NVOCC business, which can be attributed to the company’s well-established network in India, South-East Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand), Sri Lanka, the Middle East and Pakistan, and the efficient utilisation of its 14,000-TEU container inventory.

To boost its presence and worldwide network, the company is all set to open offices in China and East Africa, while bolstering its presence in Hong Kong. It also proposes to set up container freight stations in Chennai and other parts of the country, enter the third party logistics arena across the country as also foray into rail services.