Shipping agents find it tough after foreign firms open offices

Shipping agents, appointed by foreign shipping companies, are fast disappearing with a large number of these companies setting up their own offices in India. The agents look after marketing, cargo handling, paper work and vessel husbandry on behalf of the foreign companies.

But with the foreign companies deciding to look after these tasks on their own, the agents are diversifying as transporters, freight forwarders, and operators of container freight stations and inland container depots.

According to industry estimates, there were about 500 agents in the country till the late 1990s and only half-a-dozen of them are in the business today. Each of them employed at least 100 people, of which only around 30 per cent have been absorbed by the Indian offices of the foreign companies.

Some of the companies that have ended their ties are P&O Nedlloyd Ltd, a London-based company that was acquired by AP Moller-Maersk AS and Tata Tea Ltd. Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha LTD of Japan and United Liner Agencies of India Ltd have also ended their ties.

Besides, AP Moller-Maersk AS, APL Ltd, CMA CGM Group, Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd, Hapag-Lloyd AG and Mediterranean Shipping Co SA have set up their own offices in India afteer ending their agency arrangements.

A West Asia-based shipping line which is in the process of setting up its offices across the country’s port cities says India’s economy is booming, trade is growing significantly and much larger opportunities are available.

This, it said, made it economical for the companies to run the agency business on their own.