Founder & Managing Director’s Message
31st December, 2023
Good Day,
We welcome you all at Capricorn Commodities & Trading Pte Ltd,
To begin with, I am Capt. Sachin Saxena, founder of the Capricorn group and a seasoned maritime & commodity professional | transshipment expert based in Singapore since 2010, with a career span of over twenty-five years both at sea and ashore in various capacities with hands-on experience in both dry and wet bulk commodities moving globally, and an alumnus of Manchester Business School, UK.
The global population has crossed 8 billion on Earth & is growing at a rate of around 0.88% per year in 2023. The annual increase is estimated at around 70 million people per year. Basis current statistics, the United Nations projects world population will reach 10 billion in the year 2058. It is further projected that as the population increases, urbanization will increase and demand for food will increase. It is estimated that global food production needs to increase by 70% and the need for energy/fuels along with construction materials will also increase as urbanization is expected to continue at an accelerated pace and about 70% of the world population will be urban compared to about 55% today by 2050.
We started our entrepreneurial journey towards the latter part of the year 2020 during the COVID period, with a specific focus on a single commodity "RICE" to cater to the requirements of the local & global market with our in-house brand. We were extremely successful in establishing our brands and managing the end-to-end supply chain. As part of our growth strategy, the grain business was further expanded to China with back-to-back contracts and supply from very reputed GACC registered suppliers. The next phase of the growth strategy was further laid up to expand the business into African nations and diversify into other consumable products.
Simultaneously, in the year 2020, the company signed a consultancy agreement with Guinea-based upcoming Bauxite miners/sponsors to assist them in carrying out the feasibility study jointly with the Netherlands-based firm, designing the transshipment model, negotiating, and securing the long-term COA with reputed transshipment operators for their bauxite exports up to 10 MT PA. The complete mining project is funded by the African banks. After almost two years of rigorous hard work, in November 2023, after good ten months of hard negotiation, exchange of emails, and meetings, we managed to successfully conclude, that the mining company awarded and signed the FIVE years | 30 Million Tons | 200 Million USD Bauxite cargo COA with one of the very experienced Asia based transshipment operators. The signed contract was duly approved by the AFC bank, Govt of Guinea, and mining company board. I had this opportunity whereby we not only introduced the counterparty to the mining company but as a mining consultant and representative was involved and responsible for the design, budgeting, thorough negotiation, and securing the contract on mutually agreed T&C. The Bauxite mine operations are expected to commence in early 2024, & investment of about 50 million USD is done by the transshipment company/operators to build new FL/ T&B / ST & MB.
Subsequent entry into the coal market, in the year 2022, we started our sourcing & trading journey into various grades of coal from South Africa, and within a short period, a close relationship with reputed suppliers and exporters was established. In Africa, our model was to approach small to medium-scale miners who can produce but lack the resources for export and overseas business. We were successful in achieving our targets and today we have a relationship with a list of suppliers with regular business to cater Asian market. Additionally, we also have strong relationships in Australia, India & USA for various grades.
In the year 2023, It was an absolute pleasure to be introduced and connected to the chairman of a very reputed Tanzania-based group to assist them in coal export sales and simplified logistics solutions. We also gave a presentation on behalf of the coal mine to upgrade the Mtwara port vessel loading facilities with few options without much change in the current infrastructure.
Today, we proudly say that we have a global network of very reliable and trusted suppliers for various grades of coal to cater to power plants, steel & cement industries.
We look forward to your continuous support, feedback & guidance.
Wishing you all a very prosperous, healthy, and all-around success Happy New Year 2024 !!
Best Regards,
Capt. Sachin Saxena
Founder & Managing Director
