The inauguration of the SINA (Singapore-India-North America) service late in 2006 nearly doubled UASC’s (United Arab Shipping Company) throughput at the Port of Savannah.By George Lauriat, AJOTDr. Anil Vitrarana, President of New Jersey-based United Arab Shipping Company Agencies, has a fondness for the Georgia Ports Authority’s, Port of Savannah. After all, UASC (United Arab Shipping Company) has been calling at the port for a quarter of a century; a very long time for an industry that drops and adds ports like the NFL (National Football League) does coaches. According to Dr. Vitarana, part of the logic behind the call is the trade balance of the port. “Imports to exports are very close at the port…over the years we’ve [UASC] moved export cargos like paper and paper related products, Kraft liner board and recently, vehicles and bulk commodities like soy,” Dr. Vitarana, noted in a phone interview with the AJOT. It’s hard not to be pleased with the Savannah call as USAC posted a 92% increase over the past year. The biggest contributor to UASC’s results is the SINA (Singapore-India-North America) service that began late in 2006. UASC, Hanjin (Hanjin Shipping Co., Ltd.), K-Line (Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd.) and Yang Ming (Yang Ming, Ltd.) began the service to link two of the fastest growing export markets: 1) Southeast Asia and India, and 2) Sri Lanka with the Mediterranean Sea and the US East Coast. The SINA port rotation is as follows: Singapore, Colombo, Nhava Sheva, Mundra, Port Said, New York, Norfolk, Savannah, Port Said, Jeddah, Singapore. The SINA service deploys eight vessels (3,500 – 4,000 teu) on a weekly, fixed weekday service with each of the four parties deploying two vessels. Doug Marchant, Executive Director of the Georgia Ports Authority, noted at the start of the service, “Singapore-India-North America (SINA) service will bring to Savannah an express service from India that rivals transit times by other services calling competing ports. The combination of fast transit times from India via the Suez Canal, the Savannah area’s available distribution centers and the most efficient intermodal infrastructure on the South Atlantic provide customers throughout the Midwest and southern US a compelling reason to switch their traditional port of entry.” When asked about the first year results of the SINA service linking the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia to the US East Coast, Dr. Vitarana qualified the service’s success: “Yes and no. The India market may take a year and a half to two years to meet our early expectations, but we’ve had very good success with Southeast Asia, especially from Vietnam and South China (via Singapore). The weakening of the dollar and rupee may have contributed to the disappointing results.” The poor results for Indian box traffic have caused the competing IDX service, run by SCI (Shipping Corp. of India, Ltd.), Zim Line, OOCL and Emirates Shipping Line FZE, to be withdrawn. Box rates have been cut in half from India to the US East coast since 2006, while volumes have been mired around 400,000 teus. Despite the disappointment of the results in India, Vitarana is optimistic about the service, “Singapore is more insulated from the market than the Indian subcontinent, and we expect growth out of the Vietnam, Southeast Asia and South China markets.”