GAC WORLD Reshaping the Business World –

Wherever you go
GAC WORLD
Newsletter for professionals in shipping and transport No 3 July 2003
Reshaping the
Business World –
the IT Factor
Securing the System Page 8
Spam, Spam and Spam Page 10
The Genesis of the Internet Page 12
Marine Logistics Service Launched Page 16
Distribution Centre Marks 10th Anniversary Page 17

2 GAC World 3/2003
Lost in Transit
A selection of
unintentionally funny
announcements
Radio communication
between cockpit and air
traffic controller
Tower: To avoid noise, please turn right
45 degrees.
Pilot: What noise could we possibly make
at 35,000 ft?
Tower: The noise your 707 will make
when colliding with the 727 in front of
you.
Quote from an examination
script
To keep milk from turning sour: keep it in
the cow.
– I can fly back in time and recover lost backups. What do you do?
A selection from church
bulletins
Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale.
It’s a chance to get rid of those things
not worth keeping around the house.
Don’t forget your husbands.
The cost for attending the Fasting and
Prayer conference includes meals.
Contents
Editorial by Lars P. Heisselberg, Group Vice President – Shipping Page 3
IT Reshapes the Business World Page 4
GAC’s IT Systems for Greater Innovation and Better Service Pages 5 – 7
Securing the System Page 8
When the System Fails… Page 9
Spam, Spam and Spam Page 10
Wherever You Go: GAC IT Professionals Page 11
The Genesis of the Internet Pages 12 – 13
Introducing – Gamila Samarasinghe – GAC Sri Lanka’s IT Manager Page 14
My Town – Gamila Samarasinghe’s guide to Colombo and its surroundings Page 15
GAC Wrap Pages 16 – 18, 20
Industry Insight: Using the Sealanes to Revitalise a World Economy Page 19
The pastor will preach his farewell
message, after which the choir will sing,
”Break Forth Into Joy.”
Contacting GAC
Want the contact details for a GAC
office or staff member? Go to the
Directory section of:
www.gacworld.com
Editor: Lars Peter Heisselberg,
Gulf Agency Company Ltd,
Jebel Ali, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Design: Cross-Border Communication,
Copenhagen, Denmark
Production: Anna Rydén Produktion AB,
Stockholm, Sweden
Correspondence to: Amanda Millen,
TBWA\Athens, 1 Flias Street,
GR-151 22 MAROUSSI, Greece.
Tel +30-210-812 5400, Fax +30-210-812 5480
E-mail amanda.millen@tbwa.gr
Information quoted in this publication has been
obtained from several sources. Whilst every care
has been taken to ensure that details are correct,
GAC cannot provide any guarantees thereof.
Material in this publication may be freely
quoted, provided the source is clearly identified.

Editorial
3
The IT Factor
Once upon a time it was railways and steam
engines that drove the economic fortunes
of companies and nations. These days it’s IT,
in its myriad forms, shaping and reshaping
the way we work and endlessly expanding
our workday possibilities.
Throughout the GAC Group there are
systems in place to help us do a better, quicker
and more cost-effective job for our
Customers. Some of our systems link
directly to our Customers’ IT networks to
provide easy access to information, quotes,
forms, regulations and people. Some of
them sit in the background, checking, analysing,
watching and protecting. It all adds
up to a globe-spanning network of machines
labouring round the clock to serve our
human need for exchanging goods and
information.
As it was with steam engines, IT applications
both help us and challenge us. In the
Steam Age, some people believed it was not
only impossible but also dangerous to
travel faster than a horse. Now our concerns
centre on the new competencies required
to ensure safe and effective use of
our digital helpers. And the competencies
demanded of users to run sophisticated
programs pale before those demanded of
our IT managers and developers to select,
set up, train, maintain and upgrade our
systems.
In this edition of GAC World, we’re taking
a long look at IT – not just the systems
we’re using to serve our Customers but the
issues that arise with their use – things like
security, Spam and system failures. We’ll
also meet some of the people who keep our
mouses clicking.
He, She and IT
The name of Lars Bergström, our IT
Director, crops up regularly in the following
pages. This is hardly surprising, given the
weight of issues Lars has to handle. However,
IT is not exclusively a man’s domain,
as is aptly demonstrated by Gamila Samarasinghe,
our IT Manager in Sri Lanka. Apart
from introducing herself, Gamila offers
some useful tips for anyone venturing down
to the Paradise Isle.
An Anniversary
Ten years ago, GAC opened its first distribution
centre, at Jebel Ali in the United
Arab Emirates. It’s been a good 10 years of
innovation and growth and definitely
something to celebrate. The Jebel Ali facility
is state-of-the-art and a keystone in the
GAC Logistics network which, as you will
read, is expanding vigorously to meet the
needs of global traders.
I hope you find this edition of GAC
World interesting and informative. If there
are other subjects or issues you would like
to see in GAC World, please let me know.
Lars P. Heisselberg
Editor
larspeter.heisselberg@gacworld.com

4 IT Reshapes the World
IT Reshapes
the Business World
It was less than a decade ago that companies and individuals
realised the potential of the Worldwide Web as a way of doing
business. Today it is hard to imagine the world without it.
Information Technology (IT) now plays a central role in our
lives. It provides tools for communicating, informing, planning,
analysing, organising, entertaining, shopping – the list is
daunting and expanding constantly. And now, thanks to
wireless telephony and WAP technology, we can always stay in
touch – wherever we go.
In 1995, GAC became the first international
shipping agency to launch a website.
Since then, as the opportunities offered
by the Worldwide Web have grown, so too
has the range of IT services and applications
GAC offers. Today, the Group controls a
huge array of online services and specialist
software to support its services to global
shipping, logistics and marine customers.
Driving Force
Group IT Director, Lars Bergström, has
been a driving force behind the development
of GAC’s business applications since
he joined the Group in 1995. He considers
IT to be vital for future development and
success.
“GAC has developed solutions for all our
business operations and activities, tailormade
to meet both our customers’ and partners’
requirements and to support our internal
procedures and processes,” says Lars.
Proper training to ensure maximum
benefits are obtained from GAC’s systems
is a priority, he adds.
Internal Applications
Worldwide, the GAC Group uses a range
of internal applications to ensure seamless
administration and inter-office cooperation.
Lars Bergström says that GAC has
standardised its technical infrastructure
and software, ensuring there are no conflicts
between systems.
“The future is here and now,” he adds.
“Within GAC, every effort is being made to
use the most suitable technology available
to ensure that both our employees and our
customers reap the full benefits – wherever
they go.”
The Human Touch
GAC has always taken care not to lose
touch with the human element, according
to Group President, Lars Säfverström.
He says the key to success lies in combining
technological innovations with
GAC’s traditional focus on experience,
local knowledge and person-to-person
relationships with Principals.

GAC’s IT Systems
5
GAC’s IT Systems –
for Greater Innovation and Better Service
On the Internet…
GAC Online – Group Website
• Launched 1995 and upgraded regularly
since then
• Includes a comprehensive guide to the
organisation and its services plus:
- Online access to the GAC address
directory
- Access to GAC publications
- Links to local GAC companies and
relevant external sites
MyGAC
• Launched November 2000 as
www.mygac.com
• Subscribers can build their own MyGAC
home page that displays the information
they want to see
• Features include GAC contact details, a
port directory, maritime news updates
from Reuters, weather reports, currency
converter
• MyGAC now has about 4,000
subscribers
Hot Port News
• Hot Port News (HPN) described as “one
of the most reliable and up-to-date
sources of information” on port
developments around the world
• More than 3,500 MyGAC subscribers
receive daily HPN bulletins by e-mail
• All MyGAC members can see these
updates on their personalised home
pages
• E-mail bulletins can be customised to
feature the regions of interest to
subscribers who can also select whether
or not to receive daily bunker price and
trends reports
• GAC remains the only international
shipping agency to provide such a
customisable daily news service
• During the recent Iraq conflict, HPN
added a daily update on the status of
Middle East ports and airports
GAC E-News
• Launched July 2002
• E-mail news bulletin giving a round-up of
Corporate news, HPN highlights, an
“Industry Update” section and latest
amendments to GAC’s printed Address
Directory
• Distributed monthly
www.gacworld.com – GAC’s
new “one stop” Internet
address
• www.gacworld.com launched June 2003
• Incorporates all elements of the Group
site, plus MyGAC and close to 40
individual country and special service
sites
• Includes the specialised features of
various local sites such as the Suez Canal
toll calculator, updates on Bosphorus and
Dardanelles transits, online logistics
tracking, Ship Supply Service and
accounts functions
continued overleaf >

6 GAC’s IT Systems
Continued from page 5.
Shipping
GACShip
• Launched in October 2002 to support
GAC’s Hub Agency operations
• Gives transparency to GAC’s hub
activities – Partner agents have direct
access to port cost estimates and cost
control, port call operations control,
funding, and analysis
• Links the Group and its network of
Partner agents to selected hub agency
alliance clients
• Network agents can enter up-to-date
information about the ports they serve
GACAgent
• GAC’s port agent system
• Provides proforma, operations and
disbursement information
• Electronic data interchange (EDI)
facilitates smooth connection between
GAC’s and Principals’ accounting systems
• Plans to link GACAgent directly to
GACShip to give more seamless flow of
information
SAS
• Custom-built Shipping Agency System
• Developed in 1995 to optimise the Liner
Shipping Division’s agency services
• Gives liner clients information about
sales, import/export and container
management
• Supports port disbursements for such
operations
• Has facilities for EDI between the GAC
Group’s accounting systems and those of
Principals, Port, and Customs authorities
Ship Supply Services
– Mona Lisa
• Tracks and coordinates provision of
spares and mail, crew changes and
disbursements for SSS jobs
• Allows registered customers to monitor
the status of supply jobs being
performed by GAC on their behalf in the
Middle East
Logistics
Hands-On:
Alwyn Mendonca &
GAC Freight
GAC Freight: One World, One
System
• Facilitiates the handling of import and
export documentation for GAC sea and
air freight operations around the world
GAC Track
• GAC’s online freight tracking system
• Shipments can be monitored from origin
to final destination, giving complete
cargo visibility and customer peace of
mind
Online Warehouse Management
– Hercules
• Hercules provides information and reports
about transactions and stock balances at
any time and any place
• Gives Principals access to detailed
information about their stockholding,
imports, exports and statistics at GAC’s
warehouses and distribution operations
around the world
• GAC is this year introducing a new
warehouse management system,
GACWare
Target
• Freight sales administration and
management system
AirGulf Express and CargoGulf
co-ordination
• Specialised applications co-ordinate, track
and follow-up worldwide cargo traffic
handled by GAC’s air freight service,
AirGulf Express, and the Group’s Non
Vessel Operating Common Carrier,
CargoGulf
GAC Move
• Handles administration and billing of
international moving operations
• Supports surveys, quotations and
communications
• Integrated with the Dolphin financial
accounting system
Alwyn Mendonca, GAC Hong Kong’s Business Manager
for Logistics Services, says GAC Freight helps
him manage information relating to customers and
cargo flows.
Its functions cover client booking, preparation of
shipment documents, shipment consolidation and
maintenance of job files. Valuable operational and
statistical reports are generated on a regular basis,
such as weekly and monthly summaries of business
volumes, destinations and carriers used. These reports
are vital for planning and evaluation.
Alwyn says the system provides an integrated
tool for GAC’s freight forwarding activities, making
it easier for users to complete the many tasks
related to such operations. It is also linked to Dolphin,
the accounting application used throughout
the GAC Group.

GAC’s IT Systems
7
GAC Bunkers
• Supports GAC’s bunkering and bunker
trading activities
• Manages operations such as requests,
quotations, nominations and invoicing
P&I – Savior
• Handles the administration and billing of
P&I claims for GAC’s global network of
P&I Club correspondents
GACSaM
• GAC’s central shipping sales and
marketing system
• Collates statistics for all port calls
handled by GAC, as well as Principal and
sales visit information
Workshop system – Top Gear
• Tailor-made system supporting GAC’s
preventative maintenance, inventory and
purchasing activities
• Ensures efficient workshop operations
and timely maintenance of GAC vessels
and vehicles
Hands-On:
Royington Faria & GACShip
Royington, based in the Operations section of GAC’s
Dubai Hub Agency Centre, uses GACShip every day.
He says that one of the advantages of the system
is that professionals at GAC’s Hub Agency Centres
around the world have been involved in its
development. This means that it has been built
around the needs of the people who use it as well
as those of the clients it serves.
Royington says the system has changed working
processes to such an extent that data input can be
analysed at the press of a single button.
“GACShip is constantly being developed,” he
adds. “But we can safely say that it increases the
efficiency and productivity of the four Hub Agency
Centres and the Global Disbursement Centre in
Dubai.”
Marine and Offshore Operations
Hands-On:
Capt. Nick Dorse &
ISM Vessel Reporting System
ISM Vessel Reporting System
• Launched mid 2002
• Facilitates and simplifies ships’ reports on
International Safety Management (ISM)
related matters such as:
- Master’s Hand-over notes
- Chief Engineer’s Hand-over notes
- Onboard familiarisation checklist (for
crew joining vessel)
- Fortnightly safety drills
- Quarterly vessel inspection reports
- Incident reports
GAC Marlin
• Support functions for GAC Marine such
as a customer database, quote and job
tracking, invoicing, manifests, fleet
position lists and statistics
Capt. Dorse is Master of the Anchor Handling Tug
“Mimmi” based with GAC Marine in Abu Dhabi. He
is a regular user of the ISM Vessel Reporting System.
He says it has greatly simplified the task by standardising
the reporting format and significantly
reducing the volume of paper work. A built-in zip
facility also keeps the cost of data transmission to a
minimum.
“Now that computers and ISM have become an
integral part of life at sea, the necessity to standardise
reporting or face the consequences of lost
records, cluttered computer memories and general
poor housekeeping, is self evident,” he says.
“The use of the ISM Vessel Reporting System
plays an important role in addressing that issue.”
There are also plans to expand the use of the application’s
database to cover other periodic reports.

8 IT Security
Securing the System
Much of the coverage of IT
security issues in the wider
media is sensationalist,
focusing on nerdy hackers and,
in the wake of 9/11, fanatical
terrorists. With our lives now
increasingly dependent on
computers and computer
systems functioning as they
should, the fear that some day
something might go wrong is
an easy one for newsproviders
to play on.
Nevertheless, there are
substantial issues surrounding
IT security – issues that have to
be treated with respect.
GAC Security
At GAC, these issues are handled in hardheaded
fashion by Lars Bergström, Group
IT Director.
“In GAC, we take IT security issues very
seriously and our ambition is to minimise
the risks and the effect a disturbance could
have on our business,” says Lars.
Insecure computers
The continuous growth in the power of
computers and constant development of
new software has not made computers any
less vulnerable to attack.
New software such as operating systems
and mail programs invariably contain
security flaws. The sheer complexity of
modern computer programs means that
such flaws are often first noticed after the
product has been on the market for some
time.
The latest Microsoft operating system
Windows XP (released on October 25,
2001) is a case in point. It contained a flaw
in the universal plug and play system (UPnP)
that Microsoft themselves described as
“critical” and which, if utilised by a hacker,
could allow the intruder to run whatever
scripts they chose on the host computer.
The flaw was spotted by a third party a
year after the product went on sale.
The increasing use of wireless networks
and the Internet throws up new and unexpected
security issues. When wireless networks
(called wireless LANs) first became
available, vendors claimed that it would be
hard for the would-be hacker to build the
sort of receiver necessary to listen in on a
network. This claim proved to be unfounded
and ever since, wireless networks have
been widely perceived as a security risk.
Computer security has become synonymous
in the public consciousness with
Internet security.
The Internet gives the would-be hacker
remote access to millions of potential
targets in an environment tailor-made for
the propagation and distribution of computer
viruses.
Despite the widespread use of virus
filtering and detection systems and socalled
firewalls (a protective barrier between
your computer and the Internet),
viruses still pose a real threat to the security
of Internet-enabled computers. At the
same time, security flaws in widely used
computer programs mean that the well-in-

IT Security
9
When the System Fails…
What does a company do if one of its core systems crashes?
GAC’s Communication Manager, Kris Zawisza, had to handle such a
situation earlier this year when the Group’s e-mail hub went down
for the count.
formed hacker has a wide range of potential
ways into your computer.
GAC has taken these problems on board
and has developed directives to all GAC
companies on IT security, as a part of its
Group-wide IT guidelines. In addition, the
Group has documented policies for IT
security, Internet usage, e-mail usage, computer
virus control, backups and system
access control.
Insecure People
It is not just new programs and systems
that are sometimes insecure.
Users and network administrators have
to learn to operate them in a safe way, something
Lars Bergström is all too aware of.
“It is important that the users of a system
are properly trained to know how to
use the system to get the best business
benefits and avoid misuse which may result
in operational disturbances,” he notes. “It is
equally important that all staff are trained
to understand the risk involved and what
policies GAC has for IT security, so they
fully understand the active role they play in
minimising the risks.”
Ultimately it is the responsibility of
GAC people around the world to ensure
that the Group’s computers – and the information
contained in them – are secure.
At the beginning of March, GAC’s central
communications hub, provided by Cable &
Wireless (C&W) in the UK, suffered a totally
unexpected and irreversible database corruption.
The service had been running reliably
for more than ten years, not only as the e-
mail hub for the entire GAC Group, but also
as a gateway for telex, fax, X400 and
Inmarsat messaging.
As a result of the failure, some e-mails
bound for addresses with the @gulfagencycompany.com
domain were rejected completely,
while others arrived at their destination
only after a delay. Outgoing e-mails
from GAC were partially delivered.
Fortunately, all messages sent to local
GAC e-mail domains, such as @gacdxb.com,
@gacsin.com, etc. were received normally.
Immediate response
As soon as Kris became aware of the
problem, he got in touch with C&W to find
out how long the problem would last.
Meanwhile, all offices within the GAC Group
were advised of the failure and instructed to
tell their clients and contacts to use other
means of communication until further notice.
To ensure that the message was received
by as many people as possible, a Communications
Newsflash was also sent to approximately
4,000 MyGAC subscribers. The
MyGAC administrative system was fortunately
not affected by the problem. Regular
updates were released through MyGAC until
the problem was resolved.
Initially it seemed that the system would
be restored quickly and, indeed, it did come
back up. But not for long. When it failed for
a second and final time, Kris discussed the
problem with Group IT Director, Lars Bergström,
and they agreed that GAC’s contingency
plan should be activated. Thanks to
this forward planning, they knew what to do.
Contingency Plan
GAC’s contingency plan involved rerouting
e-mails through a backup system in Stockholm.
One of Kris’s main tasks at this stage
was to ensure there was enough hardware
on hand to handle the e-mail load. Each
GAC office had to change the routing instructions
on its e-mail server to direct traffic
to Stockholm. When it became clear that
C&W would not be able to restore the
service, further centralised changes were
completed and since then, the system has
been stable.
Because GAC had a contingency plan in
place, what could have been a disaster was
converted into merely a regrettable inconvenience.
Kris says the system failure
showed firstly that GAC’s backup plan works
and secondly that GAC people know how to
work pull together in a crisis.
“Credit goes to many people, too
numerous to mention, throughout the GAC
Group who showed initiative in passing on
instructions and making sure that those who
needed to be informed were. Once again
‘the human network’ proved to be GAC’s
best asset.”

10 Spam
Spam Spam and
Spam
Spam is on the up
Spam is the electronic equivalent of the
junk mail that clutters up our letterboxes.
Adverts and offers, get-rich-quick schemes,
cheap mortgages and pornography sent via
e-mail are all Spam. It is ubiquitous, unavoidable
and extremely irritating. We’d all
like something done about it, but for anybody
hoping for a Spam-free in-tray, the outlook
is bleak.
A year ago, Spam e-mails accounted for
a twelfth of mails sent. As such, they were
more a nuisance than a problem. However,
according to British e-mail filtering firm
Messagelabs Software, by November last
year one in three mails were Spam. Messagelabs
predicts that in 2003, more Spam will
be sent than real e-mails.
Spamming corporate mail
systems
Spam is attractive to the unscrupulous
marketer because of the sheer volume of
potential customers one can reach at negligible
cost via a Spam “mail shot”. If only a
few of them respond then a profit can be
made.
Blame for the recent increase in the incidence
of Spam can be laid squarely at the
door of new tools and appliances which
make the spammer’s job easier. E-mail appliance
boxes are available today which will
ship millions of e-mails per hour. Until
recently, Spam mail has been most evident
on popular domains such as hotmail.com,
but new tools and the falling cost of bandwidth
have meant that corporate e-mail
systems are becoming increasingly vulnerable.
Spammers with only modest ambitions can
now initiate so-called “dictionary” or “direct
harvest” attacks. In this sort of attack, the
spammer sends out a multitude of e-mails
to the corporate e-mail systems where each
individual e-mail is addressed to a common
name, for example John.Smith@bigcompany.com,
to see what sticks.
The vast majority of mails will be to
non-existent employees but the spammer
will be able to harvest a significant number
of genuine addresses. These can then be
sold on to other spammers and, before the
week is out, the addresses in question can
receive hundreds of junk mails.
Combating Spam
GAC has anti-spamming software (as well
as anti-virus software) in place for mail
coming into @gacworld.com, but even the
best software cannot catch all Spam.
Two strategies can be employed when
trying to catch a spammer.
Firstly, you can filter your incoming mail,
looking for tell-tale signs of Spam in message
titles (for example a series of exclamation
marks, as in “Great Offer!!!!”). One
problem with this approach is that all selfrespecting
spammers have stopped sending
out mails with give-away titles. The other
problem is that your mum’s message, “Visit
at Christmas!!!!” will be filtered out along
with the Spam.
The alternative is to subscribe to e-mail
monitoring services which are able to provide
regular updates about the domains
Spam is being sent from. Such services operate
a vast number of dummy e-mail addresses.
These mail addresses receive Spam,
revealing to the monitoring company the
domain from which the Spam is being sent.
The monitoring firm can then provide their
client with a regularly updated list of these
suspect domains, enabling the client to
block mail from them. Unfortunately, Spammers
can quickly change the domain from
which they send mail. Some is bound to get
through.
Legislating against Spam
Legislators have taken note of the increasing
volumes of Spam being sent, and have
tried to do their bit to stop it.
Great Britain and Denmark are two
countries that have recently changed their
marketing laws to make it illegal to send
marketing mails without first obtaining the
recipient’s consent. In Australia, the Communications
Minister has announced government
plans to ban Spam by the end of this
year. And US lawmakers have introduced a
Bill to provide stiff penalties for e-mail
marketers who disguise their identities or
use other deceptions to get into your in-tray.
However, such solutions are of little use
when they only apply to a few countries.
Without an effective tool to beat Spam,
the risk is that in-trays will eventually
become so choked that people will turn to
other ways of communicating. While there
is no sign of this happening at present, the
chances of such an outcome are increasing
in step with volume of Spam on our screens.
Editor’s note: The Spam problem has sparked
America’s biggest Internet e-mail provider, AOL, to
launch legal action against Spammers. While it may
not reduce the amount of Spam in your in-tray, it is
clear evidence that the issue is being taken seriously
by those with the power to do something about it.

Wherever You Go
11
Wherever You Go:
GAC IT Professionals
Around the World
The GAC Group’s IT team has
the dual task of developing
and implementing systems
that meet the needs of both
the global organisation and its
large, varied customer base.
Centres of expertise for different technical
areas and applications have been established
throughout the Group. These include
specialised teams for the Dolphin
financial accounting system, Group Communications
and GAC’s anti-virus function.
Group IT Director, Lars Bergström, says
that having such a wealth of IT expertise to
draw upon throughout the GAC World is a
great strength.
Here, we put the spotlight on four of the
professionals who form that strength…
Middle East
When Gopal Krishnan joined GAC Oman in
December 1988, his first role with the
company was totally unrelated to IT. He
started off as a Credit Controller in the
Finance Department. However, a few
months later, his enthusiasm and interest
in IT was noted and he was assigned to
oversee the implementation of the new
Cargo Gulf system. For the next eight
years, he worked both in Credit Control and
on IT projects.
In 1997, Gopal was appointed IT Manager for
GAC Oman. In that capacity, he has played a key
role in the design and development of ‘Target’,
the Sales Support software program which is
currently being implemented throughout the GAC
organisation. He is also responsible for
implementing GAC Freight, GAC’s Logistics software
system, throughout the Group.
Indian
Subcontinent
Hamid Zaidi arrived
at GAC Pakistan in
1996 with ten years
of international IT
experience and a
Masters Degree in
Computer Science
from the US.
As GAC Pakistan’s Group IT Manager, Hamid is
responsible for IT operations at GAC Shipping
Pakistan, GAC Logistics Pakistan, United
Marine Agencies Pakistan, Interocean Cargo
Services and the Al-Hamd International
Container Terminal .
Since the late 1990s, GAC Pakistan’s IT
system has evolved from a three-location, 15-
user stand-alone setup into today’s extensive
network that is unrivalled in the Pakistan
shipping industry.
Africa
Paul Ajiborisha first
started working with
GAC Nigeria as a
contractor in 1995. He
became a full-time
member of the GAC IT
team in June 1996.
When Paul came on board, HF (SSB Radio), VHF
radio and telex were the only reliable means of
communication within Nigeria.
Since then, GAC Nigeria has invested heavily
in new communication systems and continues to
do so to enhance its operations.
All GAC Nigeria offices are now linked
together, ensuring that the flow of information is
virtually “real time”.
Europe
For the past 12
years, Ali
Moussazadeh has
provided vital IT
support for the
Group’s UK-based
operations.
Ali’s responsibilities the cover technical,
programming and communication issues
for GAC’s Sales, Bunker and Hub centres
in London, as well as essential assistance
for his colleagues coordinating operations
in Iran from the Crawley office, where he
is based.

12 The Genesis of the Internet
The Genesis of the Internet
1978 – 2002
1978 1989 1990 1993 1994 1995 1996
On March 26,
Queen Elizabeth II
sends out an e-
mail from the
Royal Signals and
Radar
Establishment
(RSRE) in Malvern.
The GAC Group
starts using
e-mail.
GAC introduces its
own tailor-made,
standardised
shipping computer
systems.
Standardised GAC
Logistics systems
follow in 1992.
The United
Nations comes
online.
GAC Marine sets
up its own specialised
applications.
Shopping malls
arrive on the
Internet.
The first banner
ads appear in
October, on
www.hotwired.com
New arrivals online
during 1995
include The
Vatican and the
Canadian Government.
1995 also sees the
launch of the first
GAC website.
On January 17,
Malaysian
Prime Minister
Mahathir
Mohamad,
PLO Leader Yasser
Arafat and
Philippine
President Fidel
Ramos “meet” for
ten minutes in an
online chat
session.
The Internet has brought
about new ways of working,
new ways of selling goods
and services and new ways
of accessing information.
What is more, the Internet is
a uniquely “democratic”
medium – surprising when
one considers that it is a
product of the Cold War.
A unique medium
The Internet is essentially a lot of computers
joined together in a network. When
so linked, these computers are able to exchange
information with each other. Thus,
on the Internet, every user can be both a
sender and a receiver of information.
It is this ability to exchange information
that distinguishes the Internet from traditional
broadcast mass media such as TV
and radio where there is only one sender of
information. That unique feature can be
captured in a single word: interactivity.
Unusual features
The Internet has several unusual features
when compared with other man-made networks.
Information travelling on the Internet
does not take the shortest or most efficient
route between two points. Whenever you
send information over the Internet, it does
not travel as a discrete compact entity but
is broken up into “packets” (small nuggets
of information), each of which takes its
own individual and quite different route to
its destination.
Furthermore, the Internet is unusual in
having no central controlling body. These
features of the Internet’s basic design were
developed as a way of securing the transfer
of information in the event of a nuclear war.
Cold War thinking
In the late 1960s, the RAND Corporation,
America’s foremost Cold War think-tank,
was concerned that the communication
systems which bound the nation together
were vulnerable to attack. Both TV and
telephone systems could be wiped out by a
few well-placed bombs. Destroying key
telephone exchanges or television transmitters
would cripple these systems and, without
them, it would be difficult to
coordinate the defence of the nation.
In order to overcome this problem a new
communication network was developed.
ARPANET was commissioned by the
Pentagon in 1969 to allow researchers to
share the precious processor power of the

The Genesis of the Internet
13
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
GAC’s Ship Supply
Services interactive
online application
is launched.
GAC introduces its
Inventory-Online
service.
Electronic
postal stamps
become a reality,
with the US Postal
System allowing
stamps to be
purchased and
downloaded for
printing from the
Web.
In April, a forged
web page made
to look like a
Bloomberg
financial news
story raises the
share price of a
small technology
company by 31%.
The domain
“business.com” is
sold for US$ 7.5
million in 1999. It
had been
purchased for US$
150,000.
On January 1,
the US timekeeper
and some other
time services
around the world
report the new
year as 19100.
GAC Accounts
come online.
GAC Track comes
online.
GAC’s
customisable, subscriber-based
site
www.mygac.com is
launched followed
by GAC’s Hot Port
News daily
e-mail bulletin.
GAC sends out
the first edition of
its monthly GAC
E-News e-mail
bulletin in July.
supercomputers of the day. When designing
the telephone network, the engineers
responsible had tried to make the system as
efficient as possible. Thus, messages took
the shortest route between two points.
ARPANET took another principle as its
point of departure – robustness. A message,
once sent, should be able to reach its destination
even if the network it was sent on had
been blown full of holes by a nuclear
attack.
Thus, for the Internet, there is no central
agency responsible for maintaining the
network. Nor is information sent along predetermined
routes which, in the event of
part of the route being destroyed, would
stop the message reaching its destination.
Packets of Internet information travel one
step at a time in the general direction of
their final destination.
ARPANET to Internet
Within two years of its start-up, the main
traffic on ARPANET was not long-distance
computing but electronic post – e-mail. Expanding
ARPANET was easy because, unlike
conventional networks, computers did
not have to be of the same type to join it. It
was sufficient that they talked the “packet
switching” language of the day, the TCP/IP
protocol.
It was out of ARPANET that the Internet
we know today was born.
Other networks used the TCP/IP protocol
to connect to ARPANET from the late
1970s and, eventually, ARPANET was swallowed
up by the child it created.
Democratic medium
The lack of a central controlling body on the
Internet means that anybody can connect
their computer to it and begin exchanging
information with other users. Had the Internet
been devised with a central body determining
the route information took across
the network, it would have been far easier
to control how information was exchanged
and by whom.
Thus, a democratic and decentralised medium
was born, created as a by-product of
Cold War fears of nuclear war.
Interestingly, the Internet became a
dominant news and information medium
during the recent conflict in Iraq. People
from all over the world clicked into a variety
of news sources on the net to find out what
was happening. While not supplanting the
traditional news media, the Internet demonstrated
its capacity to fulfil the information
needs of people across the world’s
time zones.

14 Introducing
Gamila Samarasinghe
– GAC Sri Lanka’s IT Manager
Gamila Samarasinghe in brief
Born
1968 in Colombo, Sri Lanka
Joined GAC October 1995
Post held
Family
Hobbies
IT Manager
Married to Induka
Graphic design, computer
animation, photography
I was born in Colombo, the commercial
capital of Sri Lanka. My childhood was filled
with fairytale characters, heroes and
heroines pasted around the walls of our
family home. These were the creations of
my father, a painter and professional cartoonist.
After completing my secondary education,
I was drawn by the world of computers
as I was fascinated by their potential
for doing amazing things. My eagerness to
learn the intricacies of this sphere we now
call Information Technology led me to take
several IT courses and professional exams.
I started my first job in 1994, as an assistant
in the documentation section of Sri
Lankan shipping company, McLarens. I felt
confident that the insights offered into the
business processes of the shipping world
would stand me in good stead for my
future career.
Sure enough, as my first year with
McLarens was drawing to an end, luck came
my way when I heard of an opening for a
systems administrator at a company called
GAC Sri Lanka, which was formed as a joint
venture with McLarens.
Then, GAC Sri Lanka was still in its first
phase of growth and had just three computers
and less than ten employees. At first, it
was my task to help my new colleagues get
familiar with working with computers. I also
wrote a few computer programs to automate
the business process.
Those first few years proved to be a
terrific and valuable learning experience,
both for me and my colleagues at GAC.
With the passage of time, the company
steadily grew, and more and more business
units were added. Naturally, this kept me
extremely busy, improving the company’s
IT infrastructure, automation and communication
systems. The help and support of
my husband, Induka, the IT Manager for
the McLarens Group of Companies, was
especially valuable during that period.
My job at GAC Sri Lanka has never been
routine – sometimes it involves implementing
new solutions, whilst at other times I
find myself “trouble shooting” or trying to
resolve user demands and problems. I have
also played a key role in the design and
launch of GAC Sri Lanka’s local website.
Today, GAC Sri Lanka has 60 computers
and four servers – a figure that looks set to

Introducing / My Town
15
My Town
As a native of Sri Lanka’s commercial capital, Gamila has
plenty of tips for visitors to Colombo and further afield.
increase further. To meet the additional
demands this brings, I have recently been
joined by an assistant in the IT department.
The constantly changing nature of Information
Technology means that I have to
keep myself up-to-date with the latest developments,
which I do by regularly attending
professional IT courses.
Away from work, I consider myself very
lucky to live in Sri Lanka, which is also
known as the Paradise Isle. It is a land
packed with exciting sights and fascinating
places to explore. Induka and I take every
opportunity to explore the rich diversity of
our homeland in the company of good
friends. These trips have taken us to the
four corners of the island, including Jaffna,
Sri Lanka’s northern-most city which was
previously not accessible due to the civil
war of the past two decades. That particular
trip was quite an experience, with a
distinct element of risk involved, thanks to
a variety hazards and “unknowns” like uncleared
landmines.
It is during these trips that I have started
trying my hand at photography in a bid to
try to capture some of the splendour of Sri
Lanka.
Something else I like to do with my
spare time again involves computers but
also pays some homage to my father’s creations.
I love to experiment with graphics
and animation and it is my dream to use a
computer and its tools to create something
like what my father creates with paintbrushes
and paper.
In closing, I would like to extend a wish
for prosperity and a lasting peace in my
beloved land – Sri Lanka.
Best way to get around
Colombo’s metred taxis have yellow tops
and red-on-white number-plates. Make sure
the driver completely understands where
you want to go.
If you want to beat the traffic, catch a
three-wheeler. They’re quick, but you have
to bargain hard!
Favourite place to eat
There are plenty of roadside eating places
throughout the city, in addition to plush
restaurants serving a wide range of cuisines
– from Continental to Oriental.
My personal favorite is the “Gallery Café”,
where you can enjoy your dinner under the
stars.
Best Hotels
Colombo has a number of five-star hotels.
However, my pick would be the Kandalama
Hotel in Dambulla. This hotel in within the
jungle, and the view from the swimming
pool is like a painting!
Shopper’s Delight
The city is a veritable shopper’s paradise,
where you can enjoy the noise and bustle of
a colourful street bazaar – Colombo World
Market – or step into the elegant atmosphere
of a fashionable boutique in one of
Colombo’s newest shopping malls.
Where to Go
Yearning for a sandy beach and the splash
of the waves but too lazy to drive too far
out? Then head for Mount Lavinia, just
eight miles from Colombo, where the sand
is soft and the sea calm and clear.
City Sights
At Galle Face Green, in the centre of
Colombo, you can experience political discussions,
vendors and kite flyers. Spending a
few hours there will give you the opportunity
to see the many faces of the city. You
can end the day by watching a performance
of dancing elephants in the Dehiwala Zoo,
one of the finest in Asia.
Out of Town
If you have more time, head south about
190 miles to Ruhuna Park at Yala, Sri Lanka’s
most popular wild safari destination. What
makes this park unique is the huge variety
of habitats it contains, including dense
jungles, lagoons, a beautiful sea front and
rocky outcrops.
Alternatively, drive towards Kandy, and
on your way visit the Pinnawela Elephant
Orphanage, where you can mingle with
about 70 elephants or watch them taking a
bath in the nearby river.
Or visit the Sigirya Rock Fortress, the
citadel of King Kassapa, where you can
climb the rock to see the renowned Sigirya
Frescoes.
Don’t miss
A genuine Sri Lankan cup of tea. It is not just
the tea that invigorates – the beautiful
rolling green hills and valleys where the tea
grows, studded with silvery streams and
waterfalls, captivate the eye and the mind.
Best Avoided
Colombo mosquitoes – make sure you are
well stocked with repellant!
Best Thing About The Place
Colombo is a fascinating city, not only
because of its comfortable mix of East and
West, but also its easy blend of past and
present.

16 GAC Wrap
Regional Managers
to Drive Logistics
Growth
Marine Logistics Service Launched
GAC has combined its extensive experience in
shipping, logistics and marine services to offer ship
owners and spares suppliers an integrated door-tovessel
solution.
A new GAC company, GAC Marine Logistics
Inc., will provide global supply chain management
services to meet the demand for fast
and efficient delivery of ship spares and
marine parts.
The new company and its services will be
profiled in the next edition of GAC World.
“Since the start of this year, all GAC Logistics
offices around the world have been able to
file manifests electronically and get the
green light from US Customs in a matter of
minutes,” says Bill Hill, Group Vice President,
Logistics Services.
“Our customers benefit from GAC’s
understanding of the process as many in our
industry, including some of the shipping
lines, are unclear about what is required.
GAC can allay this concern for the exporter.”
Benefits
Direct AMS filing offers significant benefits
to customers. It provides tighter security
throughout a customer’s supply chain, and
because the manifest data is checked
thoroughly before cargoes are loaded, it
reduces the risk of attracting fines or having
the manifest rejected. Accurate filing of
manifest information also ensures timely
Enquiries can be addressed to:
GAC MARINE LOGISTICS INC.
GAC Distribution Centre, Jebel Ali,
P O Box 17041,
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Tel: +971-4-881 8090, 805 9450 (24 hours)
Fax: +971-4-881 1177
E-mail: gml@gacworld.com
Cables: ‘Confidence’, Dubai
Logistics Lifts Service with AMS Compliance
GAC Logistics has successfully integrated the US
Customs’ Automated Manifest System (AMS)
requirements into its supply chain management
procedures.
loading of cargo at origin and avoids delays
on arrival at US ports.
“To date, our customers have been very
supportive and have provided accurate
manifest details well in advance of the
planned sailing date. Once we have the
information, our customers can be assured
we will take care of the rest,” adds Bill Hill.
Extensive testing and evaluation of the
AMS procedures have been carried out over
the past few months along with training for
GAC Logistics’ staff.
The AMS certification is part of GAC
Logistics’ ongoing plans to comply with all
new security measures introduced by the US
since the terrorist attacks in September
2001. Other initiatives include membership
application for the Customs-Trade Partnership
Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) programme,
and a review of GAC Logistics’ internal
documentation, operational procedures and
guidelines.
Gunnar Lundgren
– Regional Logistics Manager: Europe,
Mediterranean & Africa
Gunnar was appointed
in April and is based in
Bahrain where he is responsible
for driving
GAC’s logistics business
in the Europe,
Mediterranean & Africa
region, including developing
and implementing
regional sales strategies, reviewing
service standards and building relations with
key customers and partners.
Gunnar has more than 25 years of freight
forwarding experience in the international
logistics arena. Prior to his new appointment,
he had been the Product Manager for GAC’s
airfreight service, AirGulf Express, since 1995.
Mikael Jinglöv
– Regional Development Manager, 3PL,
Asia Pacific & Indian Subcontinent
Mikael’s appointment
puts him in charge of
Third Party Logistics in
Asia and the Indian
Subcontinent .
Based in Malaysia,
Mikael is responsible
for charting and implementing
long-term strategic
plans, as well as developing new supply
chain products and services. He reports to
Christer Sjödoff, Regional Director, GAC
Asia Pacific and the Indian Subcontinent.
Mikael’s appointment is part of GAC Logistics’
on-going plan to dedicate more
management resources to identify new
markets and expand existing ones.
Prior to his new appointment, Mikael was
General Manager of GAC Logistics Inc. in
the Philippines.
Joiner
Maloy Kr. Dutta
Born in Murshidabad,
West Bengal, India, in
1966, Maloy joined
GAC Calcutta in April
2003 as Branch Manager.

GAC Wrap
17
Distribution Centre Marks
10th Anniversary
with Record
GAC’s flagship Distribution Centre in Jebel Ali, Dubai,
has celebrated 10 successful years of operation with a
record throughput of 3,000 TEUs in March - the
highest volume attained since the Centre opened.
What started out as an 8,000m 2 storage
space has expanded six-fold to become a
50,000m 2 state-of-the-art facility today,
housing the inventories of more than 60
major corporations from such diverse sectors
as retail, FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer
Goods), automotive and frozen food.
It now has more than 55,000 pallet positions,
108 loading bays and a 300-strong
workforce offering end-to-end supply chain
management solutions, including inbound
logistics, warehousing, retail distribution
and value added services.
“Our 10th anniversary offers a unique
opportunity to reflect on many past achievements,”
says Dag Bore, General Manager,
Logistics Division, GAC Dubai. “It also challenges
us to look ahead and create a vision
for continuing success in the future.”
Breaking New Ground
As the first independent distribution centre
in the region, the GAC facility has pioneered
a number of developments in the
regional logistics industry.
One significant milestone was the development
of its warehouse management
system.
The Centre’s success also supported the
development of GAC’s pan-Gulf road transport
network, which now handles about
200 trucking assignments per month. GAC’s
truck fleet includes temperature-controlled
and dual compartment vehicles for
transporting the widest possible range of
goods.
The past decade has also seen the
Centre’s customer base expand from specialising
in the FMCG sector to include the
handling of perishable food products, hightech
spare parts and hanging garments.
It now manages an increasing number of
blue-chip accounts across a broad range of
industries.
Staying Ahead
Dag Bore says the Centre’s success has
required vision, careful business planning
10 years ago
and research. He sees further developments
arising out of the Group’s new business
plan, Vision X – Global Reach, which sets
the framework for extending the Group’s
global presence while integrating and diversifying
its range of services.
“The facility has undergone many major
structural developments over the years and
they are still happening. By the end of 2003,
we will increase our capacity by another
20 per cent.
“We’re also looking to introduce more
specialised supply chain and value-added
solutions and to expand our logistics consultancy
services,” he says.
Back in 1993, the then Managing Director of GAC Dubai, Rolf Murchardt, had the task
of bringing GAC’s newest facility on line. He recalls the many discussions and deadline
challenges that were overcome to get the Centre’s doors open.
The then chairman of the Jebel Ali Free Trade Zone, Sheikh Sultan bin Sulayem, suggested
that Rolf’s plan to open the centre in January 1993 was unreachable. But Rolf
had the last laugh.
“I called His Highness in the first week of January and asked if he would be willing
to come out and cut the ribbon and I’ll never forget his face when he arrived with his
retinue and a truck drove out of one of the five huge gates.
“On that truck was a pallet dressed in red velvet and on the velvet was a red cushion
– and on the cushion was a pair of gold scissors to cut the red ribbon surrounding the
complex.
“He looked at me and remarked that there were no photographers present at which
point I pressed a remote control I had in my pocket and another gate opened in front
of us and there stood about twenty photographers waiting to record the event.
“We walked in and everything was neat and clean and there were racks of pallets
all stacked up. We were definitely open for business.”

18 GAC Wrap
Logistics Expansion in South Africa
GAC Logistics has established
three new offices in South
Africa as part of the Group’s
global-reach strategy to
provide logistics solutions
wherever its customers go.
The offices, in Cape Town,
Johannesburg, and Durban,
provide a full range of freight
forwarding and warehousing
services.
Setting up logistics operations in South Africa
is a natural progression for the company, says
Bill Hill, Group Vice President, Logistics
Division.
“GAC has been offering shipping agency
services in South African markets since
1998,” he says. “The decision to extend our
logistics operations here will strengthen our
ability to create a ‘one world-one partner’
value proposition for our customers.”
The new offices aim to harness the growing
demand for integrated and customised
solutions in South Africa, says Vivian Wright,
General Manager, GAC Logistics in South
Africa.
”We are seeing a trend where customers
are becoming more global, resulting in an increase
in the scale and complexity of their
logistics requirements, which they prefer to
outsource.”
South Africa is a key economic driver for the
whole of Africa, contributing close to a
quarter of the continent’s GDP. It is a strong
manufacturing and distribution base for food
and beverages, tobacco, furniture, textiles,
leather, and electrical goods.
Vivian says her immediate priorities are to
promote the GAC Logistics brand and the
Division’s capabilities as a global solution
provider, drawing on the global purchasing
power of GAC’s international network to
offer more competitive rates.
Top The GAC Logistics team in South Africa
(left to right): Sipho Makhomboti, Indrin Moodley,
Lynette Agrella, Paulus Mabotha, Vivian Wright,
Marilyn Marks, Shirley Cooper, Tanya Van Enter,
Lizaan Jansen Van Rensburg.
Right Vivian Wright, General Manager of
GAC Logistics in South Africa.
GAC Appointed For Iraq Aid Operation
The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) has
appointed GAC to handle aid shipments for Iraq in what
looks set to be the largest humanitarian aid operation
ever undertaken.
During the coming six months, it is estimated
that more than 1.6 million metric tons
of food aid will be shipped into Iraq.
Shipments are being handled by GAC
Dubai, in liaison with the Group’s network of
operations offices throughout the Middle
East.
Group President, Lars Säfverström, says
GAC is well suited to take on this massive
task, thanks to its extensive regional shipping
and logistics infrastructure, which includes
the giant Jebel Ali Distribution Centre
near Dubai.
“GAC has been a part of the Gulf community
for nearly half a century,” he says.
“We have lived through all the wars and all
the boom times too. It is entirely fitting for
us to be a part of the effort to bring essential
supplies to the communities in Iraq.”
The Iraq contract with the WFP continues
a steady stream of work done by GAC for
the agency, covering countries in Asia, the
Middle East and West Africa.
Gard Services
Appoints H&M
Correspondent
Gard Services, the leading provider of P&I,
marine and energy insurance, based in Norway,
has appointed GAC Shipping Pakistan
(Pvt) Ltd. as its Hull and Machinery Correspondent
in Pakistan. The appointment came
into effect in February 2003.

Industry Insight
19
Industry Insight (courtesy of BIMCO)
Using the Sealanes to Revitalise a World Economy
by Mike Corkhill
In spite of a downbeat global economy,
world seaborne trade is not faring badly.
Prospects would be so much brighter if
governments could shun domestic protectionist
pressures and open to free trade.
With coalition forces in the centre of
Baghdad, many of the Middle East uncertainties
that have clouded the global
market outlook in 2003 appear to have been
cleared. World trade, which had already
begun to pick up on the back of the growing
Chinese imports and exports, is poised
for a mini-surge.
Concerns are growing that there is not
enough shipyard capacity to build the ships
needed to meet the demand growth expected
in the next few years.
Boxes and bulk
The container, tanker and dry bulk shipping
sectors each provide an indicator of
which way the global trade winds are blowing.
The demand for container ships is
forecast to increase by up to 8% this year
and 9% in 2004. Those freight rates on the
transpacific and Asia-Europe routes are
expected to rebound most strongly this
year, i.e. in excess of 15%.
The tanker fleet is set to expand by
5.5% this year, as work on a wave of newbuildings
continues. This will be the highest
year-on-year growth for the tanker sector
since the mid-1980s. Much of the new
construction has been prompted by the
current drive to accelerate the phase-out
of older, single-hull tankers, but the seaborne
oil trades are also forecast to
increase by 3% in 2003.
The bulk carrier orderbook, in tonnage
terms, currently stands at a healthy 10% of
the overall fleet. The demand for coal in
Asia, not least in Japan and China, is currently
running at higher than historical
levels. Problems with Japanese nuclear
power plants are underpinning the increasing
levels of coal imports in that country.
In overall terms, the current spurt in
world trade is relatively modest, yet it
could have been so much stronger had the
European and U.S. economies not been
struggling to mount recoveries. Earlier in
the year the global economy was teetering
on the edge of a recession. While the dramatic
removal of the Iraqi regime may have
helped to alleviate that threat, the total
picture remains gloomy. For example, influential
U.S. forecasters have recently revised
their estimates for U.S. growth this year
down to 2.2%, from 2.8%. The European
Commission has said that the Eurozone
economy may even have shrunk during the
first quarter and that annual growth will
be lucky to reach 1% this year.
Trade restrictions
It is unfortunate that when economies
falter, the first reaction of governments is
to raise import barriers to protect local
producers, rather than to lower them
which helps to mitigate the damage caused
by economic recession.
The challenge for the world’s leading
nations is to finalise the Doha round of
World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks
before the target completion date of
December 2004. With some of the leading
heads of state facing re-election next year,
this means that the bulk of the work has to
be completed in 2003. There are two
principal areas for which conditions need
to be established to enable trade which is
more free and open than is currently the
case – agriculture and services.
Services encompasses numerous sectors,
including telecoms, transport, tourism,
finance, construction and computer
and environmental services. Services make
up three-fifths of the world economy, but
only one-fifth of world trade, so there is
considerable scope for an expansion in
trade in such services.
Maritime services
Maritime services have been identified as
being amongst those in need of ”meaningful
liberalisation” and achieving this for the
maritime transport service sector is seen as
crucial to ensuring the success of the
current Doha round of trade negotiations.
Liberalisation requests have already been
circulated and have been the subject of
bilateral talks amongst various parties.
Last month the EU and 37 other nations
signed a statement which points out that a
global network of reliable, efficient and
cost-effective maritime transport services
would benefit all WTO members, including
the poorest.
However, the US government, which has
blocked market-opening accords for the
maritime transport services sector in the
past, is yet to indicate whether it will support
the initiative. A special exemption
from the WTO rules has been given to the
US Jones Act which requires domestic
cargoes to be carried in US-owned, UScrewed
and U.S.-built ships. The extent to
which Washington accedes to pressure to
remove this exemption will provide an
indicator of not only the government’s
commitment to the Doha round of WTO
talks but also its ability to withstand the
domestic clamour for protectionism.
Editor’s Note: This article appeared on the BIMCO
website – www.bimco.dk – in April 2003. It is reproduced
here with the kind permission of BIMCO.
The author, Mike Corkhill, is a technical journalist
and consultant specialising in oil, gas and chemical
transport, including tanker shipping. A qualified
Naval Architect, he was Editor of Hazardous
Cargo Bulletin for 16 years from its inception and
has written books on LNG, LPG, chemical and product
tankers.
Feature articles written by outside contributors
do not necessarily reflect the views or policy of
BIMCO or GAC.

“But Rolf had the last laugh.”
GAC Distribution Centre in Dubai has celebrated its 10th anniversary.
On page 17, Rolf Muchardt, then Managing Director of GAC Dubai, recalls the opening ceremony.
StenTex Signs Regional Hub Deal
GAC Wrap
Tanker shipping company StenTex LLC, part of the
Stena Group, has signed a hub agency deal with GAC
for all port calls in the Americas.
New GAC India
Office Completes
Coastal Coverage
GAC India has added a 16th
office to its network spanning
the country’s ports, this time at
the east coast port of Paradip.
Under the agreement, which came into effect
in April this year, GAC’s Hub Agency Centre
in Houston coordinates all StenTex calls at
ports in the region through its network of
offices and partner agents.
StenTex runs a fleet of tankers worldwide,
the majority operating in American
waters.
Kim Ullman, President and CEO of Sten-
Tex LLC, says the goal of StenTex is to be the
preferred regional provider of tanker transportation
services to oil companies and
traders.
“We trust that this new deal with GAC
will help us achieve that goal,” he says.
Tailor-made
Tom Näsman, GAC’s Regional Director for
the Americas adds:
“This regional agency alliance is tailormade
to meet customer needs, offering the
advantages of enhanced customer service,
financial stability and cost savings.
“It is a continuous learning process to develop
and provide streamlined procedures and
innovative solutions.”
GAC’s business relationship with the
Stena Group goes back more than 20 years,
starting when Stena entered the tanker
shipping market in 1982. In 1996, GAC
signed an agency agreement with Stena
Bulk, StenTex and Northern Marine – the
Group’s management company – covering
ports in Africa, the Middle East, Indian subcontinent,
South East Asia and Far East. That
agreement remains in effect.
The port is a gateway for the import of raw
materials and export of finished goods. It is
a natural deep-draught port offering 14
berths, five of which are highly mechanised.
The coal berths are equipped with state-ofthe-art
technology facilitating the loading of
4,000 MT of coal per hour. A modern
terminal is due to be commissioned later this
year.
Paradip port achieved a record turnover
for the year 2002-2003, handling a total of
23.9 million tons. It is expected to meet its
target of 25 million tons set for the 2003-04
financial year. The port has ISO 9002
certification. ISO 14000 certification is
expected to be given shortly.
With the addition of the Paradip office,
GAC now has its own dedicated offices and
staff covering all ports on the Indian Coast.
Details of the new office are as follows:
GAC Shipping (India) Pvt. Ltd.
HIG-32, 1st Floor,
Gaurav Vihar, Madhuban,
Paradip Port - 754 142,
Orissa, India
Tel : +91 6722 221974 / 221975
Fax : +91 6722 221975
E-Mail: india@gacworld.com
After Office Hours
Branch Manager, Abdul Azim
Mobile: +91 94370 00393
For information about operations in India
contact: GAC India at india@gacworld.com