May 2012 - Lighthouse

Chairman’s Message

“I Have a Dream”, the 17-minute public speech, by Martin Luther King Jr., which was delivered on August 28th 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, has always been inspiring to me. It called for racial equality and an end to discrimination. The speech was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement.

It is said that every idea starts as a dream and I have no doubt that dreams are a fillip in everyone’s life. However there are those who just dream and others who also act on their dreams. This difference creates both world leaders as well as people who just queue up to buy lottery tickets as a gamble for their dreams.

The chances are that we fall somewhere between these extremes just “lounging around”. But imagine what might happen if we stopped lounging and started acting on our dreams. I believe that dreamers can create a positive culture in any organisation. An employee who dreams, and is able to align their dreams, with a company’s goals, results in both attaining success. If you look into any successful organisation, you can find leaders who encourage their employees to dream for success. Gone are those days where staffs are just managed. Now we need inspiration, similar to Martin Luther King Jr., to attain our corporate goals. It is this style of leadership which brings the creativity needed for success. CSS has been effective in encouraging our employees to dream and innovate. By promoting the further development of this culture we may all enjoy the feeling of being able to say, “I have a Dream” – a belief in a defining moment of excellence, both for ourselves and CSS, where all of us benefit equally together.

CSS Group Attends Breakbulk Antwerp 2012

UBM Global Trade’s 7th Annual Breakbulk Europe Transportation Conference and Exhibition will take place May 22nd -24th at the Antwerp Expo in Belgium and will address anticipated industry growth from emerging markets. The program features two days of panel and keynote discussions and as well as workshops and networking events within the heavy-lift and breakbulk transportation sector.

CSS Group will have a strong presence at the Breakbulk Exhibition led by a delegation from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and India.

From CSS Dubai, Raj George, Senior Vice President-Ocean Freight, Siby Kurian, General Manager Sales & Marketing, Amith Horra, Marketing Manager and Deepu S Dev, Marketing coordinator will be in attendance.

From CSS Bahrain, Narayan Tagore, General Manager and from CSS India, Prabhakar Maniyan, Vice President-Projects will be representing their respective regions during the exhibition.

“The Breakbulk exhibitions have proven to be a success for the CSS Group and its network offices and we look forward to exhibiting in the Antwerp show. It is an excellent platform for industry professionals to network and gain valuable information from the conferences offered,” added Raj George, Senior Vice President-Ocean Freight.

“Breakbulk is and an ideal exhibition for any logistics company to showcase its first class services and product offerings, not only from the Middle East, but worldwide. Year after year, we have witnessed the number of companies and visitors increase, which helps us to identify and target keys segments to grow our business,” said Narayan Tagore, General Manager, CSS Bahrain.

CSS India, Prabhakar Maniyan, Vice President-Projects added, “With the increase of international audiences, specifically sub continent exhibitors and visitors attending Breakbulk Antwerp, it is essential for us to exhibit as we are able to nurture our existing business relationships with overseas clientele along with generating new business that will in turn grow our market share, locally and internationally.”

Highlights from the recently released agenda include discussions of technology issues for the industry, the growing complexity of risks and liabilities in cargo moves and the influence of other shipping sectors on the breakbulk market. In addition, the topic of so-called “giga-projects,” which are creating new challenges amid rising energy demand, will be explored in depth.

“Last year, the Breakbulk Europe conference grew to be our largest event in 2011 at 4,300-plus attendees. We are excited to host even more guests this year. The agenda for Breakbulk Europe 2012 will provide real insight into areas of major growth to even more people in our industry,” said Alli McEntyre, Breakbulk Vice President and Publisher.

UBM Global Trade’s Breakbulk division organizes a trio of major conferences and exhibitions each year — Breakbulk Europe, Breakbulk China and Breakbulk Americas. In addition, three two-day congresses will be added this year: Breakbulk Africa, Aug. 7-8 in Cape Town, South Africa; Breakbulk South America, Dec. 4-5 in Sao Paulo; and Breakbulk India, Nov. 20-21 in Mumbai.

CSS Group Attends GPLN Global Meeting And Power Logistics Conference / Exhibition

Global Project Logistics Network (GPLN) will be conducting its 9th Annual General Meeting at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Center, Singapore, from May 9- 11, 2012.

Just ahead of the annual GPLN meeting in Singapore, GPLN has provided an excellent opportunity to combine the Annual Meeting event at the same venue with the Power Logistics Conference and Expo on May 7-8, 2012. From CSS Group, Amith Horra – Marketing Manager, Chandrakala – Asst. Manager NVOCC and Amal Harendrean – Coordinator, Projects, Oil & Energy department will be representing CSS Group at this Conference/Exhibition.

CSS Group is pleased to be an exclusive sponsor for the GPLN Annual Meeting Cocktail reception to be held in the evening of May 9th, 2012. Raj George, Senior Vice President Ocean Freight, CSS Group and Narayan RT, General Manager CSS Bahrain will be attending the GPLN Annual Meeting representing CSS Group.

About GPLN Annual Meeting:

GPLN brings together project cargo experts and independent project logistics specialist companies from around the world, all of whom have an expert focus on project logistics. This global meeting will allow members the face-to-face contact with other GPLN partners whereby they will be able to efficiently build professional relationships in the most lasting and cost effective manner.

CSS Group Recent Visit To Naouri Group

Continuing to build upon its business relationship with the Naouri Group, CSS Group recently visited their offices in Jordan as part of its initiative to create and sustain a strong alliance as well as strategically position themselves to service the global market.

Raj George, Senior Vice President-Ocean Freight, Ken Dinnadge, Vice President-Business Development and Ahmad Fuad, Branch Manager- CSS Abu Dhabi led the CSS Group delegation during the course of their official trip, where they met with all of the major business heads- Senior Managements of the Naouri Group whereby everyone involved was able to network and determine key sectors of business for both parties to heavily target and develop.

A focus in developing consolidation services to Iraqi clients through utilizing CSS assets and services to establish continuous services from Dubai and other global locations were discussed along with operational aspects and commercial sales/business development were discussed in detail.

“Our trip to Jordan to meet the Senior Management of Naouri Group was an excellent opportunity for both companies to meet and discuss ways in which we can grow our business together. The hospitality extended to us by Naouri Group was exceptional and I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved,” added Raj George, Senior Vice President-Ocean Freight.

“We want to convey the message that Iraq is now starting to open up for business which we believe is a unique opportunity for our global partners to participate in”, said Ken Dinnadge, Vice President-Business Development.

ABOUT NAOURI GROUP

Year of Establishment

Naouri Group was established in 1994 and today is a leading group of companies with its core businesses being in the fields of shipping and logistics, and travel & tourism.

HEAD OFFICE

Amman –Jordan

Number of companies

17 company

Network of offices

51 offices in Jordan, Iraq and Syria

Number of Employees

+ 650 employees

SERVICES OFFERED:

Shipping and Logistics

Shipping

Projects

Customs Clearance

Freight Forwarding

Land Transport

Cargo Inspection and Testing

Packing and Removals

Warehousing

Dubai Boat Show 2012 CSS Group & Peters & May

The 20th annual edition of the Dubai International Boat Show took place at the prestigious Dubai International Marine Club from March 13-17th, 2012. Home to more than 430 boats, the show featured 20 superyachts and an astounding 33 premiers, including 9 world launches and 24 regional launches, highlighting the event’s number one ranking in the Middle East as the leading destination for leisure marine trade and boating enthusiasts.

“The 20th anniversary of the Boat Show marked one of the region’s great milestones within the leisure maritime sector and we highlighted this achievement with our best show ever, from the record number of super yacht builders exhibiting, to amazing investment opportunities to secure optimum purchases on the full-range of boats and products on display, plus the spectacular entertainment and educational opportunities on offer. The boat show brings together the full range of marine offerings and is ‘the’ event on Dubai’s social calendar which is not to be missed,” said Trixee Loh, Senior Vice President, Dubai World Trade Centre, organiser of the event.

CSS Group and Peters & May exhibited its first class products and services in the Luxury Supplies and Services Area of the Dubai International Boat Show, at stand number LSS-D3.

“This year’s exhibition saw an increased number of traffic within the Luxury Supplies and Services Area. We welcomed quite a few visitors everyday and I was extremely impressed with the quality of leads and networking that took place at our booth,” said Edward Morgan, Manager-Yacht & Marine Logistics CSS Group/Peters & May.

“The Dubai International Boat Show has not only maintained its position as an essential event for the region’s leisure marine industry, over 20 years it has become a vital gateway to the global boating market,” he added.

Following last year’s success, 2012 witnessed the return of the hugely popular Supercar Promenade where visitors were able to get behind the wheel of some of the world’s fastest and most expensive cars – such as Bentley Continental Series 51, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, and Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé – all of which could be purchased at the show and driven off the site.

The Dubai International Boat Show was open to trade visitors and the general public from 3pm to 9:30pm daily.

Yacht Movement

The Yacht and Marine logistics division in CSS Abu Dhabi has recently executed a yacht shipment from Jebel Ali to Beirut. The Yacht AS 52 owned by Mr. Sami Kyriakos of length 15.5 meters, width 4.35 meters, which is roughly 350 CBM, was loaded into the vessel Atlant Trina at the Jebel Ali port. The entire operation was executed under the supervision of Rosaline Nabil, Business Development Manager, CSS Abu Dhabi. CSS along with Peters and May over the years have become one of the leading and reputable partners in the Middle East, within the Yacht and Marine Logistics sector.

Intermodal South America 2012

The 18th edition of Intermodal South America is the leading integrated exhibition and conference event for international trade, logistics, transport and cargo handling in Latin America.

This year as the largest event in the Americas for logistics, cargo transport and international trade, Intermodal South America is focused on offering three distinct benefits to its visitors and exhibitors: networking and relationship-building, technical knowledge exchange via high-quality, content-driven conferences, and the generation of new business opportunities.

The event offers over 500 exhibitors from all over the world, presenting new products, the latest equipment’s and technology innovation and a vast conference program, providing the unique opportunity and experience for more than 50 thousand professionals.

Siby Kurian, General Manager Sales & Marketing CSS Group, represented CSS Group for Intermodal 2012 and said; “By having a presence at Intermodal for past number of years we are able to network and nurture business relationships with our business associates from all continents. Intermodal is an excellent platform for logistic companies to showcase their first class products and service offerings to an international audience.”

Intermodal South America- [2012]?Venue: Transamerica Expo Center, Sao Paulo, Brazil?Date: Apr 10, 2011 – Apr 12, 2012.

New Assignment With Homeward Bound

Massimilano Spina, VP Freight Forwarding has been given the additional responsibility of the relocations department, CSS Homeward Bound. CSS Homeward Bound was setup by CSS Group to meet the ever-growing demand of the relocations among the expatriate community. Now CSS Homeward bound is well equipped with an experienced and professional team capable of delivering substantial services in relocation of your offices, apartments or villas. Within a short span of time CSS Homeward Bound has been successful in a great number of relocations of households and offices within and outside the Emirates. The professionalism in which we carry out each job has certainly earned us the reputation of being among the top within the industry

“I am extremely delighted to take on the new challenge of overseeing all relocation activities for CSS Homeward Bound. The relocation’s industry is vast not only in the Middle East but worldwide as many expatriate professionals and organizations choose the Middle East as their home base. I look forward to continually build upon the brand awareness of CSS Homeward Bound both locally and internationally”, added Max.

THE SERVICES OFFERED

Worldwide packing and moving of personal effects

Local and International removals (Homes and Offices)

Customs clearance and door to door service

Warehousing

Transportation

Industrial packing and lashing

Comprehensive insurance

Special Events & Exhibitions

THE FACILITIES / STRENGTHS

Own warehouse facility

Operating a fleet of own trucks

Multilingual staff

Well trained and experienced professionals

CERTIFICATIONS AND ASSOCIATIONS

A member of the Canadian Association of Movers (CAM)

A member of International Association of Movers (IAM)

A member of Asian Relocation Association (ARA)

Dubai Export Monitor Shows Continuous Growth Trend

Exports continue to increase fostering growth in Dubai’s manufacturing sector. South and West Asia are top destinations for Dubai products by value, according to Dubai Export Monitor – a yearly publication by the government.

Dubai Exports, an agency of the Department of Economic Development (DED), Government of Dubai, revealed that in 2010, the Emirate has been exporting diverse products, such as gold and precious metals, sugar, plastics and food, in various target export markets particularly in South and West Asia.

“This edition of Dubai Export Monitor report has been compiled to serve as a ready reference to various stakeholders in the four main areas of interest-overall trade trend, regional trade, trade by product and trade by market,” said Saed Al Awadi, Chief Executive Officer, Dubai Exports.

An important conclusion of the report showed that in 2010, exports sustained the continuous growth trend, while imports to Dubai and Free Zone as well as re-exports have reversed the decline witnessed in 2009. Another important trend was the continuous growth of direct and free zone exports during the past years, followed the positive growth trend of manufacturing GDP, indicating that exporting was a main factor in fostering manufacturing growth during the recession.

Projects @CSS

CSS Tirupur successfully handled and moved solar panels which are used for solar photovoltaic power plants at Nenmani village in Sattur, Tamil Nadu. The movement was carefully planned and executed by the professional projects team of Tirupur. These solar panel movements were executed for Drake and Scull water and power LLC, Dubai, who were the clients. The consignment originated from Malaysia. There were 13,400 units of panels in 7 X 40 and 1 X 20 containers, which comprised of 268 boxes which were of 358.59 CBM. CSS did the entire local clearance procedures and transported the consignment to Sattur. The entire job was challenging and exciting as per the team at CSS Tirupur.

Growing Leaps And Bounds Cochin With CSS

Kochi, with its world renowned port and the new Vallarpadam transshipment terminal gives an edge to the booming commercial aspect of this city. CSS takes the full advantage of being present in this historic and the fastest growing city of Cochin, which is regarded as the commercial hub of Kerala. This city could is considered as the second most important port city after Mumbai in the western coast.

Console Shipping Services, with a very strong presence in Kochi, is on its move to make it even stronger. Situated right next to the Port, CSS India is fully equipped with state of the art technology and an efficient manpower to cater its best of service to the clients. Console Shipping, being present in most of the major ports and cities in India, finds Kochi presence, a strategic one, foreseeing the mammoth growth, Kochi has seen in the recent past.

The recent advancement in the projects sector and the relocation business, has paved a new path for the shipping and logistics fraternity for development. Due to various favorable factors, Kochi is becoming the hub of IT industry, which catapulted the real estate boom. The entry points of this city like the Shipping Port and Airport has fastened its pace to meet up with the sparkling requirements, the industry demands.

Cochin Port trust has taken measures to increase and modernize its facilities, with the support of a pro-active management team and the support from the State and the Central Governments. The port has handled around 17 million tonnes of Cargo in the year 2010-11 period and is expected a steady growth in the years to come. New initiatives such as the International Container terminal, the International Marina and International ship repair complex could change the face of this port city of Kochi.

Cochin international airport, with a fame of being the first privately owned one, has announced 25,000 Sq. Mts of temperature controlled warehousing facilities for perishable items with in its cargo village. Most of the International airlines are flying in and out of Cochin airport, which makes it now one of the busiest airports in South India.

Kochi, the business capital of Kerala, has long been an attraction for the international traveler. Kochi was popularly known as Cochin from the colonial days till recently. Its strategic importance over the centuries gave shelter to Arabs, British, Chinese, Dutch, and Portuguese sailors, all of whom have left indelible marks on the region’s development.

Al Noor-Family Fun Fair 2012

Keeping in line with its continuous commitment to corporate social responsibility and giving back to society, CSS Group has lent support to the Al Noor Training Centre for Children with Special Needs by volunteering for the Al Noor-Samsung Family Fun Fair 2012, which took place at the Al Noor campus in Al Barsha, Dubai on Friday March 2nd, 2012 from 10am-10pm.

The Al Noor – Samsung Family Fun Fair was honored to have the Royal Patronage of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Dalmook Bin Juma Al Maktoum, and His Highness Sheikh Rashed Bin Dalmook Bin Juma Al Maktoum.

Isphana Al Khatib, Director of Al Noor Training Centre for Children with Special Needs said, “as we do each year, we have carefully planned and organized the activities for the event with care to ensure the element of fun and entertainment for all ages prevails. With close to 1000 volunteers registering to help in the logistics, we look forward to another exciting and highly successful event.”

Over 50 CSS employees, family members and friends participated for this worthy cause by volunteering their time to help setup and facilitate for various booths, gaming areas, food counters and raffle stations throughout the event.

“The support and team work displayed by the CSS staff, family and friends was outstanding, their positives attitudes and excellent enthusiasm was highly appreciated and I would like to personally thank everyone involved and as well as Al Noor for organizing the Al Noor-Samsung Family Fun Fair 2012, and for allowing CSS to participate. We look forward to other events throughout the social calendar,” added Amith Horra, Marketing Manager, CSS.

The Al Noor Annual Fun Fair is the second fundraising event of the year that aims to raise a substantial amount of funds to cover a part of the running cost of the Centre and address the Centre’s budget deficit. Al Noor Training Centre for Children with Special Needs has for the past 30 years been providing quality professional training to the special needs community of Dubai. They are a nonprofit organization and currently provide training to 270 children from 31 different nationalities with special needs.

Schenker Cricket Tournament

CSS Group has successfully secured another impressive tournament victory in the DB Schenker Inter Shipping Cricket tournament. CSS has been crowned the winners of this tournament for the second time, the first occurred in 2010 during the inaugural DB Schenker Cricket Tournament.

The final was played between CSS Group and Globlink Westar. CSS defeated RHS Logistics in the Semi Finals and X-PRESS FEEDER in the Quarterfinals. CSS won the toss and elected to bowl in the finals. The bowlers got wickets in regular intervals and were backed up with splendid fielding which restricted the mighty Globlink Westar to a total of 44 for the loss of 9 wickets in 8 overs. Chasing a modest total CSS Group emerged as the winner in the run chase with 3 overs to spare. CSS’ Rowmahs bagged the Man of the Match title hitting 4 sixes and 1 four in finals and Atiq won the Man of the Series title for excellent performance throughout the tournament!

Girls Basketball Team

Senior Girls Basketball Team: CSS Group recently sponsored the girls Basket Ball team from ‘Our Own English High School’, Al Warqa, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

UAE Badminton Tournament

The press conference for the 35th edition of the India Club – Western Union Money Transfer Tournament took place on April 15th, 2012 at the India Club, Dubai, UAE. Amith Horra, Marketing Manager and Deepu S Dev, Marketing Coordinator represented CSS Group who is the associate sponsor for the badminton tournament. The Tournament is scheduled to commence on Monday May 14th, 2012 at India Club, Dubai and the finals are scheduled for Friday, June 1, 2012.

To encourage the local talent, this year, the Tournament has been planned in two phases – The first phase is The UAE Open for players from UAE and GCC and the next phase is the Super League. As part of India Club’s drive towards Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), as in the previous years, they are planning to conduct matches for the Special Needs Children / Individuals under a separate pool. The categories will be based on the number of entries received. Invitations will be sent to various Special Needs Institutes in Dubai for participation in the same.

“It’s been three in years in a row that CSS Group has been associated with this prestigious tournament as one of the prime sponsors and we feel honored to be part of one of this significant sporting event in the UAE,” added Amith Horra, Marketing Manager, CSS.