SCIs Container Business in Trouble?

SCI Mumbai
“We are examining it (the container shipping business) very minutely with a microscope,”  Chairman and Managing Director of SCI, Arun Kumar Gupta is quoted as saying by Indian business newspaper Livemint. “ If pushed to the wall and if we think there is no way we can turn around the loss-making container shipping business, we might as well close it down”.
SCI is the only Indian company operating international container service. However, freight market slump in container shipping has affected the companys dry bulk and tanker businesses, as revenue from the later two was used to subsidize container shipping.
The company reported a net profit of Rs. 49.50 crores for the quarter ended June 30, 2014.
This is against the loss of Rs. 98.70 crores reported for the corresponding quarter last year. The company had also reported a profit of Rs.13.24 crores during the preceding quarter of Jan‐ Mar 2014 after five consecutive quarters of loss.
Despite the depressed market conditions, operationally SCI has performed better as can be seen from the profit from operations before other income & finance cost, which stood at Rs. 11.94 crores, as against the loss of Rs. 61.11 crores during the same period last year, the company said in a release.
According to SCI, the figures have been slightly pushed by cancellation of some of the companys shipbuilding contracts. Since April 2013, the company withdrew from nine shipbuilding contracts to cut spending.

World Maritime News Staff, August 14, 2014; Image: Shipspotting
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