Singapore’s Sentosa Ship Brokers has made its first foray overseas with the opening of a new office in India, TradeWinds is told.

The two-year-old tanker shop has recruited Sanjay Mathur, the head of shipping at Indian Oil Corporation to head up the operation in New Delhi.

“We are thrilled that Sanjay joins us in India to head up our office there to grow our business in the region,” Sentosa Ship Broker managing director Miles Wright tells TradeWinds.

“He has nearly four decades of experience in the energy sector in India. He is well known in the shipping community in India and having such a senior person to lead our venture in India is an ideal fit for us.”

On Sentosa’s reasons for setting up shop in India, Wright said the Indian tanker market is of course a very significant one in terms of size and importance, both for imports and exports.

“With an ever growing population widely predicted to pass 1.5 billion over the next 15 years, the energy market will continue to grow,” he said.

“Whilst, like so many other regions, it is over-broked we feel our skills and experience can add value there to support our existing clients whilst developing new ones domestically in India.”

Having an office [in India] will give us access to a huge pool of talent to enable us to stay ahead when it comes to technological changes in the industry

Miles Wright

Wright said the India operation will initially focus on Sentosa’s core business which is the clean and dirty tanker markers.

But he said the company plans to expand into gas in the future and is “actively looking for brokers to join us across all areas of the tanker markets”.

Sentosa also has an eye on India’s status as an important centre for data and technology, especially with shipping facing increased digitalisation.

“Having an office there will give us access to a huge pool of talent to enable us to stay ahead when it comes to technological changes and advancement in the industry,” said Wright.

However, Wright said setting up a new office in India has not been smooth sailing with the obvious logistical issues with physically opening an office due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We have an office ready to renovate and move into once current restrictions are lifted and it's safe for staff to work together in an office environment, but for the time being staff will work remotely from home,” he said.

Looking ahead, Wright said the company plans to “continue its expansion in the region and further afield, including other areas of shipping services – as feasibly as possible during these trying times.”

“It is of course a difficult time to do so due to current and ever changing travel restrictions but we continue to look at other regions and will look to open offices in China, The Middle East, Europe and America in the hopefully not too distant future,” he said.

Sentosa, which started in 2018, has since grown to a staff in Singapore of 24 including eight clean tanker brokers, one small tanker broker and four dirty tanker brokers.

“Like most tanker brokers we of course benefited from a fantastic few months at the start of the year on both the spot and projects markets in an unprecedented market that no one could have predicted,” Wright tells TradeWinds.

“To say the market has gone from feast to famine is an understatement but we are well positioned to continue our expansion…and we are optimistic of the tanker markets and shipping as a whole going forward into 2021.”