Tranworld Group, the shipping and logistics stalwart with a strong presence in the UAE, projects substantial growth in its feeder services this year.

The group, founded in India in 1976 by entrepreneur R Sivaswamy and now chaired by his son Ramesh S  Ramakrishnan, announced recently it had contracted a Singapore company for building four feeder vessels.
According to P Hariharan, assistant general manager of the Transworld Group, the feeder traffic handled by its main shipowning subsidiary Orient Express Lines (OEL) Inc Panama, was 251,198 teu in 2004 against approximately 209,000 teu in the previous year. OEL is projecting a throughput of 277,370 teu for the whole of this year.
The group has general plans to expand the feeder routes into growing markets as well as expanding its presence in India, Iraq and the Gulf, the official said,
In addition to OEL, the group’s shipowning subsidiaries are Shreyas Shipping Ltd India, Shreyas World Navigation, Singapore, and Hayleys Lines, Sri Lanka. Other key Transworld subsidiaries are Balaji Shipping (UK) Ltd, a line operator, and Transworld FZE, a logistics facility in the Jebel Ali Free Zone, Dubai.
The group specialises in common carrier feeder services, inland transportation, container freight stations, ship and marine container repairs and other support services.
OEL operates 18 owned vessels and three chartered vessels in its 10 services that cover the Gulf, the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asian ports.  Vessel capacities range from 350 teu to 1,500 teu.
The company began operations from Dubai in 1983 as a common carrier feeder operator. It initially provided feeder services linking the UAE hub ports with the ports on the west coast of the Subcontinent and the Arabian Gulf. It has expanded its network and now offers services connecting the Subcontinent and the Arabian Gulf with the transhipment ports of Colombo, Port Kelang and Tanjung Pelepas.
OEL’s customer base includes mainline and non-vessel-owning common carriers, among them being Maersk Sealand, APL, Messina, CMA-CGM, Dongnama, Balaji Shipping, and United Arab Shipping Company.
The company has cost-sharing arrangements for three vessels, two of which operate on the UAE–Karachi sector and the other one on the UAE-Dammam-Bahrain sector.
OEL and its sister company Shreyas Shipping recently awarded a $100-million contract to a Singaporean company to build four feeder container vessels, which will be ready in 2007. The group’s Dubai-based Seabridge Shipping Agencies handles all OEL vessels calling at Dubai and Northern Emirates. It also represents Balaji Shipping (UK).
Shreyas Shipping is the first and only private sector Indian container feeder operator.  Set up in August 1988 and a public-listed company since 1994, it operates seven vessels with capacities ranging from 350 teu to 1,500 teu. It is the only shipping company in India to obtain the ISO 9002 certification for container ship and feeder services management.
Balaji Shipping handled container traffic in excess of 10,000 teu in the last two years, and expects a five per cent growth this year. It is a leading line operator offering both full container services (FCL) and less than container load (LCL) services through a network that covers South Asia, the Arabian Gulf and extended Middle East, the Far East, Commonwealth of Independent States, the Afghan border area and Southeast Asia.  With offices in Dubai, India, Singapore and a joint venture in Colombo, the company has about 10,000 owned and leased containers and offers LCL services to Europe.
The group’s logistics facility Tranworld FZE, is strategically located at the southern side of the Jebel Ali Free Zone on the main transportation corridor linking Dubai and the neighbouring emirates and countries.
“Transworld FZE offers total logistics solutions to a wide range of local and regional customers,” says Hariharan. “It has a flexible open-plan warehouse management system and offers real-time transactions, optimised stacking and cargo removal, automated cargo identification with web-enabled track-and-trace for customers.”
The facility covers an area of 80,000 sq ft, has 65,000 sq ft of racking space for 9,583 pallets, a multi-tier racking system, 13 loading/unloading bays with hydraulic dock levelers and refrigerated and temperature-controlled storage facilities. The centre conforms to management standards ISO 9000:2000 for warehousing, logistics and distribution services.
“As Transworld is involved in almost all phases of the liner transportation industry, this unique world-class logistics centre is yet another element in the group’s transportation chain, providing its customers a complete one-window solution no matter where they are based,” said Hariharan.
Bombay-headquartered Transworld Group has an annual turnover of $750 million and employs 1,500 people worldwide with offices in Dubai, India, Singapore and Malaysia and joint ventures in Kuwait, Muscat, London and New York.
It remains a family business and both chairman Ramakrishnan and vice chairman S Mahesh, his brother, have been credited with masterminding growth after the death of their father and founder.