STO to operate shipping line

State Trading Organization Plc (STO) has announced that the company is preparing to operate their own shipping line.

Shahid Ali, Managing Director of STO told Sun today the company has decided to operate a shipping line in order to facilitate the import of goods, as the company imports a large quantity of goods to the country.

“Our idea is to change the [existing] registry to operate of our ships to a shipping license and then to continue expanding,” Shahid Ali said.

Shahid said that STO already owns two vessels that is used to transport goods between Maldives and Dubai and that the company will purchase an additional vessel in order to set up their shipping line.

STO said that the purchase of the new vessel will ease logistics to import food products to the country and that they plan to commence new routes between Male’, Colombo and Singapore.

It is difficult to say when the shipping line will be up and running, Shahid said, but assured that the effort is ongoing at a good pace.