S J Logistics began as a small freight-forwarding desk in 2000 and has spent two decades climbing up the logistics value chain - from booking space on other people’s ships to operating its own vessels on fixed trade routes. The company moves what others find difficult: oversized earth-moving equipment, transmission towers, and heavy industrial cargo bound for infrastructure projects across Africa and South America, alongside more routine containerised goods like yarn and tyres. The recurring approach is forward integration - using the cash flows and customer relationships from one stage (freight forwarding) to build the next (NVOCC, then direct vessel operations), each time capturing more control over routing, scheduling, and margins.
Business segments
Three engines built in sequence - a project-cargo and freight-forwarding backbone, a fast-scaling carrier-without-ships layer, and a newly launched vessel-operations arm - each giving the company more control over the cargo journey than the one before.
1. Ocean freight and project cargo: the heavy-lifting core
The company earns its keep by moving containerised goods and oversized industrial cargo across global trade corridors, with project cargo now contributing nearly half of total revenue.
- Project cargo is the margin engine - moving earth-moving equipment, transmission towers, and break-bulk shipments for infrastructure projects in Africa and Latin America, a segment the management describes as structured, high-margin, and insulated from short-term freight-rate swings. In FY25, project cargo crossed ₹267 crore in revenue, up from ₹105 crore the year before, and by FY2025-26 ODC & Project Cargo accounted for nearly 48% of the total.
- Commodity-specific sales teams - the ocean freight division is organised around key export categories, with yarn and yarn commodities contributing ₹106.62 crores in the first half of FY26, and ODC, tyre, and project cargo contributing ₹126.6 crores in the same period, growing at 40%. The company has onboarded three major tyre manufacturers - JK Tyre, ATC Tires (Yokohama), and Mahansaria Tyres (Ascenso) - as preferred export logistics providers, handling more than 400 TEUs combined.
- Destination delivery, not just port-to-port - the company specialises in clearing cargo at the destination port and trucking it deep into the interior of continents, particularly in Africa, where infrastructure is sparse and door delivery is the hard part. It handles DAP (Delivered at Place) shipments to landlocked countries, managing customs clearance, warehousing, multi-modal movement, and final inland delivery with full documentation support.
- Government and PSU relationships - the company is empanelled as a logistics service provider for SAIL (Steel Authority of India Limited) and has registered with several other public-sector undertakings, offering specialised services tailored to PSU procurement requirements.
- Domestic heavy-lift now in-house - in July 2025, the company added a dedicated vertical for domestic heavy lift transportation, deploying its own fleet of specialised pullers to execute complex cargo movements across India, reducing dependency on external vendors.
2. NVOCC: the carrier-without-ships layer
By issuing its own bills of lading and consolidating cargo, the company acts as a carrier to its customers while buying space from vessel operators - capturing carrier margins without owning a fleet.
- Scaled from near-zero to material in a year - the NVOCC division grew from ₹2.1 crores in the first half of FY25 to ₹31.93 crores in the first half of FY26, a jump of over 1,400%, as the company converted freight-forwarding relationships into direct carrier bookings.
- Focused on high-volume Gulf corridors - the NVOCC service covers dry containers and reefer containers (for perishables) on routes to the Gulf, Upper Gulf, and Middle East nations, backed by an agency agreement with Good Voyage Shipping Services in the region. The company has also expanded NVOCC operations to Misurata in Libya and Novorossiysk in Russia, moving cargo from Nhava Sheva and Mundra.
- Container supply locked in for five years - a Container Service Management Agreement with Eikovivify Logistics Private Limited secures approximately 2,500 TUEs (containers of various sizes) for the NVOCC division, with an agreement value of roughly ₹65 crores, ensuring container availability without owning the boxes.
3. Direct vessel operations: the forward-integration bet
The company now charters and operates its own vessels on a fixed Red Sea route - moving from a space-buyer to a space-owner, with control over scheduling, capacity, and pricing.
- Six vessels by early 2026 - the company inducted four vessels by February 2026 and confirmed it was expanding to six by March 2026, using twin 904 TEU container vessels with a sailing frequency of every 18-21 days.
- Combines three customer pools onto owned capacity - the vessel operations unify the company’s established freight-forwarding volumes, its NVOCC customer base, and new direct-shipper relationships onto a single platform, giving it the ability to fill its own ships with cargo it already controls.
- Focused on Red Sea and Black Sea corridors - the liner services target strategically important trade routes where the company already has strong cargo flows, rather than competing on the main East-West trunk routes dominated by the largest global carriers.
Air cargo
A small but IATA-accredited air freight division handles time-sensitive and high-value shipments, built on long-term airline relationships rather than owned aircraft.
- IATA accreditation since July 2024 - the certification enables full-scale air freight services, with the division generating ₹14.26 crore in its first six months and ₹7.5 crores in the first half of FY26.
- Runs on airline partnerships - the company provides competitive air rates for both exports and imports globally, backed by long-term relationships with carriers, without taking on aircraft ownership.
Warehousing and inland network
A leased-warehouse and branch-office footprint across India provides the first-mile and last-mile connectivity that makes the international freight business work end-to-end.
- Bhiwandi warehouse anchors the western corridor - the company leases roughly 38,910 square feet in Bhiwandi, Thane, a major logistics hub near Mumbai, supporting cargo consolidation and distribution for both domestic and international clients.
- Branch offices in port cities - new branches in Visakhapatnam (January 2025) and Kolkata (June 2025) extend the company’s reach to India’s eastern coast, with the Kolkata office expected to add meaningful volumes from the region.
- Vendor network for inland transport - first-mile to last-mile movement across India is handled through an established network of transport vendors, while customs clearance runs through experienced CHA (Customs House Agent) tie-ups for documentation, duty processing, and cargo release.
Group structure and partners
The company operates through three wholly owned subsidiaries in India, Singapore, and Dubai - with the Dubai entity serving as the vehicle for vessel operations and the Singapore entity holding an FMC licence since 2013.
- SJA Logisol (India) Pvt. Ltd. - the Indian subsidiary, which reported turnover of ₹7,870.71 lakhs and profit after tax of ₹430.80 lakhs for FY25.
- S.J.L. Group (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. - the Singapore subsidiary, set up with an FMC (Federal Maritime Commission) licence in 2013, reported turnover of ₹214.92 lakhs and profit after tax of ₹31.46 lakhs for FY25.
- S J Logisol Shipping L.L.C, Dubai - acquired effective June 2025 for a cash consideration of approximately ₹55.77 lakhs, this subsidiary is the operating vehicle for direct vessel operations and liner services, and was previously owned by Mr. Jeet Shah, the promoter group’s Director and CFO.
- Key operating partners - the Suez Express Service is run as a joint venture with Nexus Line Freight Broker, Dubai. NVOCC operations in the Gulf are supported by an agency agreement with Good Voyage Shipping Services. Container supply is secured through a five-year agreement with Eikovivify Logistics Private Limited.
- Global agent network - the company operates across more than 30 countries with over 2,000 agents spanning six continents, with agency agreements in Brazil, Chile, China, and Vietnam for inbound and outbound cargo handling.