Photo: Project cargo specialist, Steamships Logistics Division, has a fleet of nearly 30 ships, tugs, and barges, more than 200 trucking assets, as well as an expanse of machinery and equipment. It employs more than 1,700 staff (98 % PNG nationals).
Papua New Guinea’s oldest business group, Steamships Trading Company Ltd, has invested millions in its Logistics Division in re-fleeting and new equipment with several million more to be expended prior to 2025. The re-fleeting, together with changes to provide more comprehensive and intermodal end-to-end logistics solutions ensures that Steamships has ample capacity to increasingly service the logistics requirements of not only its PNG clients but those in the broader region.
Steamships’ Logistics Division is PNG’s largest operator of transport and logistics, with a more extensive service network than any other logistics provider. The division comprises four operating entities (Consort Express Lines [domestic & regional shipping], EastWest Transport [general transport, customs clearance & warehousing, fuel transport], JV Port Services [stevedoring & handling, heavy equipment leasing], and Pacific Towing [harbour towage & marine services) and operates 16 offices and agencies across the country.
The division’s four operating entities have each recently made multi-million dollar investments in re-fleeting (e.g., ships, tugs, barges, containers, trucks, fuel tankers), as well as in new machinery (e.g., cranes, reach stackers, empty container handlers, forklifts).
Central to Steamships’ capacity to service countries in the South Pacific and beyond, is its shipping business, Consort Express Lines (‘Consort’). In addition to being PNG’s premier coastal shipper, Consort is a regional project cargo specialist and has several vessels (i.e., conventional container vessels, landing craft, and tug and barge sets) available for both domestic as well as international charter.
Consort has experience with all categories of project cargo (i.e., overweight and oversized, sensitive [including dangerous], and break bulk).
Consort works in partnership with its international shipping partner Swire Shipping, as well as ‘sister’ Logistics Division entity, EastWest Transport to provide clients – no matter where they are in the region – with a full suite of logistics services (e.g., container packing, stevedoring, customs clearance, warehousing, storage and laydown facilities, depot to wharf transport, etc.,).
“Our key competitive advantage is that we focus on giving clients exactly what they need” says Thomas Bellamy, Chief Operating Officer of Steamships’ Logistics Division. “Increasingly this means comprehensive and integrated logistics solutions. With our network we can pick up any kind of project cargo from suppliers – no matter where they are in the world – and deliver it safely and efficiently to a client’s doorstep.”
Bellamy reports that additional competitive advantages enjoyed by Steamships’ Logistics Division are its safety and local content credentials. “We are firmly committed to working towards ‘Zero Harm’. This means reducing injuries, environmental damage, and asset damage in the workplace through an embedded ‘Work Seif’ culture. Furthermore, Steamships is a proud Melanesian business with an exceptional track record of helping drive the development of the communities in which it operates – 98 percent of its 2,600+ staff are Papua New Guineans.
