Arun Gupta likely to become Shipping Corporation Chairman

Arun K Gupta is likely to be appointed as the new chairman of Shipping Corporation of India which has not been having a full-time head for over a year when the company is passing through its toughest periods.
Gupta is at present Director, Offshore Services, at the city-headquartered shipping line, which posted a loss of Rs 114.31 crore in the last fiscal.
"The name of Arun K Gupta has been shortlisted," a top shipping ministry official said here today, adding the announcement should be done in the next 15-20 days.
According to the official, the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) cleared the name of Gupta recently.

The state-run shipping company has been without a full time head since S Hajara retired in December 2012 after a one-year extension. B K Mandal, Director, Finance, has been officiating as the CMD since then.
The name of its director of bulk and tanker division Sunil Thapar was cleared by the PESB in August 2012 to succeed Hajara, but the Central Vigilance Commission did not clear his name. Following this, Mandal was made interim chairman from January 2013.

According to sources, the decision to fast-track the appointment of the new CMD came after SCI's future as a Navratna company was threatened by three years of consecutive losses. As per government rules, PSUs with Navratna status reporting three years of consecutive losses will lose their Navratna tag, which would curb their financial autonomy.

SCI, which owns one-third of the total shipping fleet, was struggling for the past few years primarily due to a steep decline in freight rates and oversupply of vessels as the economy is in shambles. Also, the company failed to tap into the lucrative offshore services sector, unlike many of its rivals, denting its balance sheet.
However, private player like Great Eastern Shipping, Mercator and Varun Shipping successfully diversified into allied sectors like offshore drilling and LPG shipment, something SCI could not do.
The company has also struggled to take advantage of the various MoUs it had signed with large PSUs including ONGC, CIL and SAIL, which could have helped it with assured cargo during the downturn in the sector.