Calcutta Freight Brokers Association organized its 74 th AGM -Daily Shipping Times

Kolkata: Calcutta Freight Brokers Association (CFBA), a leading freight broking community association organized its 74th Annual General Meeting here with a gathering from shipping fraternity as well as from Mumbai who were present to attend the AGM .

Capt. Deepak Tewari, CEO, MSC Agency (India) Pvt. Ltd. was the distinguished Chief Guest of the function. Also present were Mr. Bharat Jain, Vice-Chairman, Calcutta Freight Brokers Association, Mr. A. K. Sengupta, Secretary CFBA, Mr. Mukesh Oza, President & CEO, Samsara Group, Indrajit Sengupta, MSC, Vice President, Ashok Janakiraman and other dignitaries of Export Import trade.

Addressing the function, Mr. J S Chopra, Chairman CFBA welcomed the Chief Guest Capt. Deepak Tewari. He further said, Capt. Tewari currently also serves as Chairman of CSLA, an eminent recognized personality of Container Shipping Lines operating in India.

He added, “Export Import trade of a country is the index of country's economic performance as well as prosperity. “India's Exports stood at $303 billion during 2011-12 and Government has set an export target of $350 billion for the financial year 2011-2013. The Export Import trade from an integral part of the economy and in foreign trade shipping plays a very important role as 90% of Indian trade is being carried by seaborne vessels either by chartering vessels or by liners trade”.

During FY 2011-12 country's trade deficit peaked to $185 billion and the forex reserves are below $300 billion, shrinking for the first time in recent years.

Over all the economic growth during FY 2011-12 was 6.5% but it slipped to 5.3% during the fourth quarter of 2011 - 12 and it is feared that it may not be more than 6% during the current financial year.

Shipping is an international industry and the service of the shipping is rendered all over the world considering particularly the nature of liner shipping, where the liner operator has literally hundreds of customers, it becomes essential for a liner shipping organization to utilize the services of freight-brokers to render better service to its customers. Thus, freight- brokers are the vital link between the ship-owners and its customers and hence they have a very useful role in the maritime sector. Moreover, the freight-brokers also act as ears and eyes for the ship-owners providing them with vital information about the shipping market and help the ship-owners to continuously adapt their services to cope up with the changing needs of their customers.

Today shippers / customers want much more from the freight brokers than 'Cargo booking' services. The din and glamour for access to worldwide network is going up by leaps and bounds and in this context, I am happy to say, that this association has an objective of serving the shipping fraternity and foreign trade of India. Members of association have also adapted to the changing environment in a professional manner and many members today offer a wide range of services to the exporters, importers and shipping lines, which is not confined to freight booking only. I am sure, the core competence of members of this association, their loyalty, dedication to the profession and the services rendered to the clients and shipping lines will stand the members in good stead in the years ahead and this association will continue to play its pivotal role with the same strength and vigour as in the past.

Further, he emphasized that, Ports and shipping have been traditionally the growth engines for any country and in the wake of a global consensus that India will be experiencing unprecedented growth. The stretched capacities in the Indian port and shipping sector, necessitates that India is in need of massive infrastructure development to handle the ever growing traffic. It is a well understood fact that Ports should keep pace with the technological developments in ship-building.

The Kolkatta Port Trust aims to clock a 15 per cent growth in cargo handling in 2012 13 after a drop of 9 per cent in the previous fiscal. In 2011 12, the CPT handled 43.245 million tones of cargo against 47.545 million tones in 2010-11. Kolkata Port ranked third in terms of Container traffic among Indian Major Ports.

KoPT handled an all time record of 5,52,190 TEUs in 2011- 12 against 5,26,474 TEUs in 2010 11 (4.88% growth). KDS handled an all time record of 4,12,406 TEUs in 2011 12 against 3,77,135 TEUs in 2010 11 registering a growth of 9.35% highest amongst Indian Major Container Handling Ports.

Calcutta Freight Brokers Association has been enjoying strong relationship with its counter parts in Bombay and that is Bombay Overseas Freight Brokers Association.

The presence of their Chairman Mr. Keyur Tharani, Mr. Gurudatta Deoshthalee, Mr. Kamlesh Gandhi, Mr. Jayesh Gandhi and their Committee Members reflects the strengthening of the ties between the two associations.

Mr. Bharat Jain, Vice Chairman, CFBA, proposed a vote of thanks to all the dignitaries from Mumbai and other shipping members of Kolkata to attend this meeting. He also thanked “The Freight Broker has to play a larger role during the period of such imbalance. He needs to act responsibly and provide true market feedback to the Shipping Lines”. On behalf of CFBA he thanked everybody for their sustained support and hope that brokers will get better support in future. He also put on record our sincere appreciation for the guidance and whole hearted support received from Mr. Ashok Jankiram President and other members of the ASIC.