England-registered Inchcape Shipping Services and Sri Lanka registered John Keells Holdings PLC (JKH) on Tuesday (22 September) said it has formed a new partnership to offer suite services to ease voyage logistics at Sri Lanka – a strategic intersection of one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.
The South Asian country is an important maritime hub in the Indian Ocean, with an estimated 31,000 vessels a year traversing the East-West trade route connecting the major industrial centres of North America, Western Europe and Asia, making it a vital link in the global supply chain serving a region that hosts around 35% of the world’s population, it states.
Bunkering challenge
Inchcape’s commercial manager for the Middle East, South Asia and Africa, Koushik Chakraborty, points out a major challenge for vessels traversing this major sea passage is securing high-quality bunker fuel at competitive prices with minimal route deviation and time-definite delivery.
The new venture is able to arrange more economic OPL (Out-of-Port Limit) bunkering at the ports of Colombo and Galle, as well as bunkering at anchorage at Hambantota, a newly developed port at the southern tip of Sri Lanka located only 10 nautical miles from the East-West trade route.
This is facilitated by the country’s primary supplier of marine bunker fuels and lubricants, Lanka Marine Services, which is part of the John Keells Group’s ports and shipping business along with South Asia Gateway Terminals.
“Our scale allows us to offer sharp prices and guaranteed time-definite delivery to facilitate fast turnaround. This provides a significant saving to the ships versus many other international ports where bunkers are taken at anchorage or alongside,” Chakraborty says.
In July, Manifold Times reported Inchcape Shipping Services and John Keells Holdings entering into a joint agreement to form Inchcape Mackinnon Mackenzie Shipping (Private) Limited.
Related: Sri Lanka: Inchcape Shipping services and John Keels Holdings form joint venture company
Photo credit: Inchcape Shipping Services
Published: 23 September, 2021
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