Quarterly October 2004 - Odfjell

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INDIAAn emerging AsiansuperpowerBy Sudesh KamathDowntown Bombay with the FinancialDistrictThe Gateway to IndiaForget the India you once knew: it isgone! Contemplate instead a new selfconfident,resurgent nation, embracingits role as an emerging Asian superpower.With over one billion citizens, India is thesecond most populous nation and thelargest democracy in the world. Withinthe country more than 36 languages andlarge number of dialects are spoken, withEnglish being widespread in the majorcities. The most common bond is the sportof Cricket, a “religion” followed by 90%of the population.Currently the Indian Gross DomesticProduct (GDP) is growing by 9.4% peryear. Agriculture is a very importantsector of the economy, on which 62%of the population directly depends andwhich contributes about 25% of the GDP.Industry & service sectors are growing inimportance, and now account for 26%and 48% of the Indian GDP respectively.Some of the main growth drivers arecomputer software, science, textiles, arts,movies, nuclear power and other servicesectors. India holds the world’s largestmiddle-class population (about 300million), expanding at a very steady paceand with an enormous buying power.Expansions in the chemical/fertilizer/oilindustries have definitely placed India inthe community of leading nations, on thestrength of knowledge rather than size.However, India is not without is shareof problems: Over-population, AIDS,unemployment, corruption, pollution andpoverty.The political scenePolitics is an integral part of the nationalfabric, with general elections beingheld every five years. In April-May2004 approximately 58% of India’s 662million voters cast their ballots for 543parliamentary constituencies in 35 statesand union territories. As a result, bymid May a new coalition governmentheaded by the Congress Party under theleadership of Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, with Mr.Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister,came to power. It is too early to say whatthis 100 days-old government holds instore for India. Nevertheless, as is the casein all progressive nations, it is mainly thecommercial development and multitude,and not the political processes, that keepsIndia going and growing.The Marine DriveThe market sizeIndia and Pakistan together annuallyimport about 5 million tons of phosphoricacid, about 2.5 million tons of variousodfjell quarterly 10
(petro-)chemicals and about half amillion tons of base oil and lubricants.In addition, albeit of less importance toOdfjell, some 5 million tons of vegetableoils are imported per year. For India, thelargest budget expense after defenseexpenditures are imports of crude oil andclean petroleum products, which amountsRush hour commutingto about 100 million tons per year. Withinthe next couple of years LNG will be thename of the game.Slowly but surely over the last fiveyears, India has grown as an exporter ofchemicals and petrochemicals. The leadingplayer in this respect is the Reliance groupthrough their massive 27 million tons peryear refinery at Jamnagar and their multifeedgas cracker at Hazira on the WestCoast of India. Products like paraxylene,benzene, LAB and glycols, but also castoroil, fatty acids and groundnut oil, areregularly being exported in bulk. Inaddition there is a huge export and importof speciality chemicals in iso-tanks and drybox containers. India is one of the worldleaders in the production and exports ofbulk drugs and pharmaceuticals.Odfjell services to the IndianmarketOdfjell has served the Indian marketfor many years, and continues to havea prominent market presence. We haveone vessel each month from the USGulf via South Africa and one ship fromNorthwest Europe via the Mediterraneanand Suez. Both ships normally go to WestCoast India and Pakistan, and continueonwards to the Arabian Gulf. Two-threevessels a month come from North Africaand/or South Africa with phosphoric acid,primarily discharging in one or two portson the west coast of India. In addition wehave one vessel every three weeks fromSingapore to India/Pakistan and onwardsto the Arabian Gulf. On an averageOdfjell makes about 9-15 port calls everymonth.Cricket, the shared “religion” in Indiasuggest that we are moving in the rightdirection. Recently we have been ableto load export cargoes on some of ourpositions. With our total activity level inthe sub-continent at about 1.5 milliontons per year, we are firmly entrenched inthis crucial and interesting market.We do not expect the Indian importmarket to grow dramatically, and wehave been fairly selective as to how muchof the import business we should pursue.There are always more opportunitiesavailable, but this would not be the wellpaying cargoes. However, establishingthe proper import business to India isalso a question of how many vessels wewish to have open, to take care of ourcommitments from the Arabian Gulf.With the ever-increasing production andexports of (petro-)chemicals in the MiddleEast, it is imperative that we maintainour share of the India/Pakistan importmarket to bring tonnage into the area ona commercially sound basis.Odfjell India - Our local teamOdfjell India covers the markets of India,Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Thecompany started in New Delhi in 1987,and moved to Bombay in 1995 to focusmore on the growing chemical importbusiness which is primarily located on theWest Coast of India. The Odfjell India teamcurrently consists of seven people: SudeshKamath (joined the company 1988), AnupChatterjee (joined 1993), Hetal Vaishnav(joined 1996), Manisha Desai and SujataShetty (joined 1999) are taking care ofcommercial and operational matter, whileMahendra Patne and Suhas Kawale arecarrying out various other functions.We have a customer base in thesub-continent counting roughly 300companies with whom we are in directcontact, and due attention has to begiven to all. Four of us, led by Sudesh,are into marketing. We are visitingcustomers, domestic as well as in theneighbouring countries, keeping themupdated of our positions and followingup on inbound as well as outboundbusiness. Sujata is concentrating more onthe IT sector, which is also a major task. Inaddition to the marketing, we are closelycoordinating with the respective agentson West as well as East Coast of Indiaplus Pakistan, in order to achieve a quickturnaround for our vessels.Our share of the export market is stilllagging behind, but the last 18 monthsThe Odfjell India Team (from left: Anup Chatterjee, Suhas Kawale, Manisha Desai,Sudesh Kamath, Hetal Vaishnav, Sujata Shetty, Mahendra Patne)odfjell quarterly 11
Page 1 and 2: odfjell quarterly 1C O M P A N Y M
Page 3 and 4: Dear Colleagues...During the week S
Page 5 and 6: Naming Ceremony of M/T Bow SpringBy
Page 8 and 9: Odfjell Safety InitiativeSAFETY COM
Page 12 and 13: Odfjell enters into New TerminalVen
Page 14 and 15: Risk Management NewsAdherence to Pr
Page 17 and 18: Bow Petros, one of Odfjell’s vess
Page 19 and 20: The Odfjell Quarterly Brain TeaserT
Page 25 and 26: A South African traderin vegetable
Page 27 and 28: Future Ship Managementof Odfjell-ow
Page 29 and 30: New positionsHelge Olsen hasbeen ap
Page 31 and 32: REGIONAL TRADESHIPYEAR BUILTDWTCBMS

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