Mumbai: Government-owned Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) is to review the useful life of its vessels at a meeting of the board of directors in Mumbai today. Scrapping some of the older vessels in its 69-strong fleet would help the carrier become leaner and more efficient.
The country’s largest shipping line is planning expenditure of INR8bn ($130m) on the purchase of two second-hand liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers and a couple of new offshore supply vessels, to be built at Cochin Shipyard. These would be SCI’s first vessel purchases in over three years.
The most recent addition to its fleet was in March this year, in the form of a newbuilt very large crude carrier, Desh Vibhor, of 316,634 dwt capacity, ordered in 2012.
The INR10 face value shares of the company have been rising steadily over the past 10 days, from a level of INR47 on May 11 to INR58 on Thursday morning, on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
