State owned Shipping Corporation of India said it will acquire 60 vessels by March 2015, entailing an investment of about INR 200,00 crore.

The company also plans to diversify and enter into areas like ship building to become a full fledged maritime player from a shipping company at present.

Mr S Hajara CMD of SCI on the sidelines of a SCOPE conference said that "We have 30 odd vessels on order for USD 2 billion. We will order more for over USD 2 billion. The vessels will be delivered by 2014-15.”

Mr Hajara had said last month that there was a likelihood of these ships being built in South Korea and China. The company had planned to acquire 62 ships during the XI Five-Year Plan.

He said that "We are looking at shipbuilding also. It is a backward integration for a shipping company. We will be doing it in partnership either with an Indian or foreign company.” He however, did not give any timeframe for this.

SCI at present owns 76 ships of 5.1 million DWT and mans 60 vessels of 0.2 million tonnes DWT. It plans to take its capacity to 12 million DWT by March 2015, by acquiring these 60 vessels. DWT is the total weight of the ship, including the cargo, crew and fuel.

(Sourced from PTI)