* Two-year contract effective 1 January 2010, extendable by one year.
* Deliverables include stevedoring, customs clearance, container train-cum-road logistics.

BSE:520086, NSE:SICAL, Reuters:SICA.BO, Bloomberg:SICL@IN

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Thursday, December 31, 2009 / IndiaPRLine / — Sical Logistics Ltd, India’s leading provider of multi-modal integrated solutions for the logistics of bulk and containerized cargo, today announced the award of an INR 1.63 billion (INR 163 crore) contract from government-owned Hindustan Copper Ltd for the multimodal port, train, and road logistics of copper concentrates, cathodes, and continuous cast copper wire rods. The contract has a term of two years, beginning 1 January 2010, and is extendable by one more year.

The contract deliverables include:

* stevedoring and customs clearance for copper concentrate imports at Kandla Port in Gujarat state;
* container train-cum-road logistics linking Kandla Port; the copper mines at Malanjkhand in Madhya Pradesh state; HCL’s smelters at Ghatsila in Jharkhand state and Khetri in Rajasthan state; and HCL’s continuous cast copper rods plant at Taloja, Navi Mumbai, in Maharashtra state.
* all-India distribution of the finished products to major commercial centers by container trucks.

The contract was awarded to Sical Multimodal and Rail Transport Ltd, a wholly-owned specialized subsidiary of Sical Infra Assets Ltd, the company that houses Sical’s ownership in infrastructure-oriented, asset-intensive businesses. Sical Logistics owns 74% equity in Sical Infra, with Old Lane Mauritius owning 26% equity.

Sical Multimodal and Rail Transport has a Category-1 all-India license to run container trains for domestic and exim cargo. The company has deployed 1,800 various-sized containers on 5 rakes operating out of 5 rail head terminals.

Comment by Ashwin Muthiah, Chairman

The new contract reinforces our strong belief that customers are increasingly seeing the value of Sical’s unique proposition of seamless, multimodal supply chain linkages across rail, road, port and sea, said Ashwin Muthiah, Chairman, Sical Logistics. “HCL is a prized customer: we flagged off our container train operations in March 2008 with their cargo. We are delighted with HCL’s re-affirmation of faith in Sical’s capabilities with integrated multimodal logistics,” said Ashwin Muthiah.

About Sical

Handler of nearly 22 million MT of bulk cargo and 570,000 TEUs of containerized cargo annually, Sical Logistics Ltd is India’s leading provider of integrated solutions for offshore logistics and multimodal bulk and containerized logistics.

Sical provides end-to-end solutions in:

Bulk logistics—stevedoring; port terminals; customs house and shipping agency; trucking; railroad; warehousing.
Container logistics—container terminals; ICD; CFS.
Offshore logistics—platform supply vessel; cutter suction dredger.

Sical Logistics’ delivery network includes port handling and customs house agency at Chennai, Tuticorin, Visakhapatnam, Kandla, Haldia, Paradip, Goa, Mangalore; ship agency at all major and intermediate ports in India; an exclusive walk-in berth (JD5) at Chennai for ships carrying bulk cargo; container terminals at Tuticorin and Chennai in JV with PSA Corporation, Singapore; pan-India container train operations on strategic corridors for exim and domestic cargo; 1 million square feet of storage across 17 warehouses; owned and regularly contracted fleet of more than 1000 transport vehicles; container freight stations at 3 locations across India; and the Germanischer Lloyds-classified cutter suction dredger Sical Portofino.

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