New India groupage service plans fortnightly sailings

BANGALORE-BASED Consolidated Marine Services has appointed Vanessa de Villiers and Compass Logistics to market its recently-launched groupage and FCL (full container load) service between India and South Africa.
In South Africa last week on a marketing visit was CMS m.d. Captain Vikram Menon who has big plans for the South African route.
We currently have slot charter arrangements with regular lines on the India - South Africa route, but are considering working with a partner in the Gulf to operate our own vessel, Menon told FTW in Johannesburg last week. Menon is optimistic that CMS will be in a position to offer two sailings a month to India from September.
The vessel would serve Karachi Mumbai, Colombo, Port Louis, Reunion (subject to inducement), Durban, returning to Karachi and Mumbai.
This is one of several routes operated by the company which is active in the Gulf, Europe and CIS.
Unlike many other NVOCCs, CMS leases its own containers. This offers the shipper important flexibility in terms of shipping his cargo. If he uses a line box he's forced to ship the cargo on that line's vessel.
For us there are risks involved and we have to keep the equipment moving, but ultimately the client
gets a better deal.
CMS has offices in Delhi, Bombay, Madras and Bangalore with satellite offices around Delhi.
The company was established in 1986 in a consultancy capacity involved mainly in the shipment of aid to Africa. We were like a flying squad, says Menon. Wherever there was a problem in a port in Africa, we would arrange the shipment of goods to be discharged from the vessel without long delays.
We operated successfully until the break-up of the CIS states which saw much of the aid moving to countries like Bosnia, which reduced the tonnages to Africa.
As a result of this reduction in business, CMS branched out into ships agency. When the government of India introduced new legislation in 1994 sanctioning the establishment of NVOCCs, it was granted a licence and added a groupage arm.
Johannesburg-based CMS representative Vanessa de Villiers is well known in the industry. She started her career in clearing and forwarding, moving into ships agency with Bridge Marine where she was the manager of one of its agencies, Malaysia International Shipping Company. After relocating to Johannesburg last year Menon approached her to represent CMS locally. She operates from Blackheath, working closely with the company's Durban agent, Compass Logistics.
Compass is headed by Ronald Naidoo and Syd Frederic, who is currently chairman of SAAFF (SA Association of Freight Forwarders) Natal.