Papua New Guinea’s Largest Logistics Co Re-Fleets
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 is ready to meet the needs of several long-anticipated resource sector projects.
Steamships’ Logistics Division is PNG’s largest operator of transport and logistics, with a wider service network and a more expansive breadth of services 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).
PNG’s resource sector is on the cusp of a ‘super cycle’ of investment with the anticipated 8-year back-to-back construction phase of the Papua LNG project led by Total, and the Exxon-Mobil led P’Nyang project. During this period, the economy will also see the resumption of Porgera Mine and the commencement of the Wafi-Golpu project. The logistics requirements of not just the resource companies but those in their supply chains during this period are set to rapidly escalate.
Chief Operating Officer of Steamships’ Logistics Division, Thomas Bellamy, reports that “the division’s recent investments, together with further capital allocated for near-term expenditure on additional vessels, trucks, machinery and equipment between 2023-2025, gives Steamships more than sufficient capacity to meet the growing logistics requirements of its client base.”
“Having the largest in-country capacity is not enough though” says Bellamy. “This is why we’ve also restructured the division and forged new partnerships so that we can give all customers – and particularly our project customers in the mining and oil and gas sectors, the comprehensive ‘joined-up’ logistics solutions they’re now demanding.”
Top image caption: Steamships’ Logistics Division has over 200 trucking assets, a fleet of nearly 30 ships, tugs, and barges, as well as an expanse of machinery and equipment. It employs more than 1,700 staff (98 % PNG nationals)
