Siam Pattana Maritime Co., LTD. (SPM), a Thai lineage ocean carrier who are part of the Siam ECL Group Company. SPM and ECL are part of a joint venture between a Thai company and a project cargo expert from Japan, Eastern Car Liner (ECL). They decided to expand the service on their Japan-Thailand route as well as supporting Thai Government’s cargo with their fleet of nine vessels.
For more information regarding this exciting expansion, we were given an opportunity to speak with Mr. Thanit Hanbenjaphong, Director of Siam Pattana Maritime Co., Ltd.; Ms. Kotchakorn Samnaopoke, Marketing Manager and Mr. Shiro Aratame, Managing Director of Siam ECL Co., Ltd. The shared with us the company’s vision and their service expertise which makes them the strongest conventional service provider in the Thai market.
The Conventional Expert
“Our customers are both private and government agencies, but since we possess Thai flagged vessel that operate around Asia, especially in Japan-Thailand route, we desire to support Thailand by providing the best ocean freight service to help build up the infrastructure of the country. Most excitingly are the train transporting projects that are currently underway and more are on the horizon,” said Mr. Hanbenjaphong, who has over twenty decades of experience in ocean freight business.
Mr. Aratame shed more light on the subject, “It all depends on the procurement policy of the government sector, and the government can sometimes even execute the procedure directly by themselves, but sometimes they rely on outsourced companies, trading houses or other outside partners to help them with these shipments. That is the reason why the government sector is an important customer for us, but we still work with private companies as well.”
“Our fleet of nine vessels serving in regular routes between Japan and Thailand are comprised of one Thai flagged vessel (SPM BANGKOK) and eight other Sub-Thai flagged vessels. This is one of the big strengths that is enabling us to support Thai Government in the future,” Ms. Samnaopoke emphasised their readiness of SPM in their mission of supporting the Thai Government’s cargo projects.
“The Thai Government’s cargo is required to be transported by Thai flagged or waivered vessels. The penalty for shipping this cargo on any other foreign flagged vessel in the Thai region is very high. Therefore, this is a big benefit provided to Thai ocean carriers from the Thai Government. We happen to be a Thai ocean carrier who possesses conventional vessels which are the proper instrument for project cargo. Our ship cranes are capable of lifting 150 tons, allowing us to cover every step of the operation under the support and high standards of Siam ECL group company and ECL, who holds forty years of experience in this line of business,” added Mr. Hanbenjaphong who clarified that strengthening their conventional service is the number one focus of SPM and ECL, for they are the experts in project cargo with Ro-Ro vessels.
This year, SPM were nominated for a train bogies transportation project which is Thai Government owned cargo. “The project requires a Thai flagged vessel, and we are one of few companies in possession of such vessel. Our distinctive and strongest point is our fleet which encompasses over nine vessels, which enables us to support the project by rotating two vessels per month,” said Mr. Aratame.
Mr. Aratame also revealed another strength of the Company, their sense of responsibility from the moment the cargo touches the vessel to the process of discharging. “For our conventional service, we have ‘Hook-to- Hook’ responsibility. Meaning that our responsibility begins once we hook onto the cargo in Japan and our responsibility would end once the cargo arrives in Thailand, unhooked on the consignee’s trailer.”
Build Up Future Path on the Foundation of Experience
SPM’s high-quality service is a by byproduct of their many years of experience in the field of ocean freight. “Our ECL/Eastern Car Liner group company are not only providing service in the region of Thailand, we also deliver project cargo from China to Singapore, which is a train bogies transportation project to be specific. Moreover, we deliver cargo from Japan to many regions as well. We are experts of conventional cargo and project cargo,” Mr. Hanbenjaphong proudly said.
“We not only have experience in train bogies transporting projects, we also have experience in transporting machines, including hundreds of tons transformers from Japan and China to Thailand. Furthermore, we have delivered oil pipes from Japan to Thailand for PTT Public Company Limited. and delivered double railways for Thailand’s Eastern Train Line in response to the Thai Government’s double railway policy,” added Mr. Aratame.
In addition to the latest project which pushes the Company to new boundaries, Mr. Hanbenjaphong took us back to the past couple of years, where SPM faced their most challenging project; a windmill transportation project. “The cargo in this project is unique. Therefore, our customer demanded for more responsibly and security. We handled the cargo conscientiously in order to perfectly complete the project. We delivered a high volume of cargo with bigger vessels, for the length of the windmills is sixty-two meters which is longer than our regular vessels.”
“During the past year, we delivered Thailand’s biggest windmill project over a total of twenty-four shipments; two shipments per month. In the past three and a half years, we have delivered two windmill projects, which encompassed over five hundred thousand cubic meters of cargo. This is one of our proudest achievements.”
Although, SPM is not the only Thai ocean carrier in possession of a Thai flagged vessel, they are always in pursuit of new goals. Along with their abundance of experience and high-quality service, SPM is undeniably stands at the top as the strongest Thai conventional service provider.
“There are other Thai ocean carriers providing the same service, but they don’t prioritize conventional services as much as we do. This gives us room to push ourselves to become the number one conventional service provider while making the Japan-Thailand route permanent as well,” said Mr. Hanbenjaphong.
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