Seatrek Trans has an illustrious record of over two decades of oceangoing dry bulk cargo operations, serving many of the world’s biggest cement producers and other large industrialists. But following a health scare in 2022, Seatrek Trans’ Founder and Managing Director Asifur Chowdhury turned his focus to charitable activities, where he is now applying his enormous business talent toward serving the world’s least fortunate. Richard Hagan spoke with Mr Chowdhury to find out all about it.
Based in Singapore, Seatrek Trans is a cargo ship owner and operator, carrying mainly dry bulk cargo across the world for a variety of highprofile multinational industrial companies. Its clients include manufacturers such as Holcim, Lafarge, Cemex, Heidelberg, Itochu Corporation, Marubeni Corporation and Mitsubishi Corporation. For this, Seatrek Trans uses a combination of its own vessels and vessels on short- and long-term charter, whilst also offering its own vessels for charter to other operating companies. In 2018, it added tanker operations to its portfolio.
In addition to its long-term ocean transportation contracts, Seatrek Trans offers added-value market feasibility studies for close clients. In this, Seatrek Trans analyses market reports plus various business and industrial intelligence sources, generating a final report that ultimately assists clients in making a business case for appointing Seatrek Trans for their shipping needs.
A personal pivot
During the Covid era, Asifur Chowdhury, the Founder and Managing Director of Seatrek Trans, experienced a significant personal health scare that profoundly impacted the future direction that his life would take.
“It made me realise that after giving more than 30 years to the shipping industry, there is more for me to do in life; that I want to start giving back to society,” Mr Chowdhury revealed. “Shipping, of course, has been very exciting over the past 30 years, but I needed something in my life to look forward to the next day besides just shipping.”
Mr Chowdhury has indeed enjoyed a long and illustrious career in shipping. After a decade spent working in his father’s successful shipping business, he left to establish Seatrek Trans in 1999. The company has enjoyed sustained growth, with dry bulk cargo comprising about 70% of the company’s cargo operations.
In general, Seatrek Trans prefers long term contracts which are oftentimes exclusive. Mr Chowdhury highlighted the fact that two clients in particular – Holcim , based in Switzerland, and the ITOCHU Corporation in Japan – have proved
especially pivotal to Seatrek Trans’ success. “Clients like these are the most important aspects of our business and our success,” he affirmed.
Since his health scare, Mr Chowdhury has gradually scaled back Seatrek Trans’ cargo operations. However; the company will continue to provide tonnages to the shipping market. This revised operational strategy has intentionally created room for Mr Chowdhury to more fully immerse himself in his charitable work, both in Singapore and beyond.
“I’ve been dedicating most of my time to charitable opportunities rather than cargo operations,” Mr Chowdhury confirmed. “I almost did not survive my health scare; people say it’s a miracle that I made it through. I decided right afterwards that the best thing for me to do now is to start a family charity, which we have since done. We work with the most underprivileged people – the people whom nobody is taking care of.”
Giving back to the community
Mr Chowdhury’s charity focuses mainly on working with Singapore’s underprivileged, elderly and migrant workers.
“Most of them are living on a minimum amount of money from the government or from their savings,” said Mr Chowdhury. “We all tend to believe that Singapore is so rich; that everything works perfectly smoothly and that everyone is happy. When I started this charity, I didn’t expect to see the scale of the needs that I have seen.”
The charity began on a small scale in 2022, providing migrant workers with rice cookers, table fans and other everyday domestic essentials, in addition to complimentary bus rides to and from Little India on Sundays. The charity’s work soon scaled up, however, and began providing free meals every Saturday to underprivileged families living in cramped, governmentowned apartments.
The charity’s next project will involve constructing rooftop vegetable farms for the communities it serves, who will benefit from free, organically grown vegetables while also enjoying some light, daily physical activity required to maintain the gardens. The project is awaiting final
sign-off from the authorities and will then go ahead.
Mr Chowdhury’s involvement with particular communities, such as Tanjong Pagar, is also partly driven by the fact that he owns two successful hospitality establishments nearby: One is ‘Binomio’, a Spanish restaurant; the other is ‘Set of Six’, an elegant cocktail bar, both of which he has owned and operated since 2012. These restaurants are set for an imminent international expansion to Dubai.
Charity apps & road tripping
When discussing his accomplishments, Mr Chowdhury’s enthusiasm for his charitable work was obvious: “Every day, I look forward to creating something new. In charitable work, when you create something, the result is fantastic . The impact can help change lives.”
One of these projects is a revolutionary app designed to help people
suffering from dementia. In collaboration with a local university professor and researchers, the charity is developing a mobile phone app that will help doctors assess a patient’s de mentia status and its progress through specially developed in-app games.
“We are funding the app’s development through a joint venture with the university,” said Mr Chowdhury. “I have never done a project like this before.
When I talk to the young people involved in working on these new projects, their energy and enthusiasm excite me.”
Meanwhile, Mr Chowdhury has recently returned from an epic, halfway round the world road trip. The ‘London2Singapore’ journey saw a group of like-minded individuals travelling in a pair of Land Rovers from
London, overland to Singapore, in a truly awesome journey that began in August 2023 and ended in December. The expedition raised money for various causes along the route, including a charity in Bhutan supporting disabled and underprivileged children, one in India for underprivileged children, and a children’s library project in China. “We raised over $200,000. It was such a success that I intend to do more in future,” said Mr Chowdhury.
Concluding, Mr Chowdhury reflected on his transition from business to charity: “The charity is the vision I want to carry forward; it will keep me busy. Whilst I still need to maintain my business to fund the charitable work, I’m excited about continuing to reinvest into these – and other projects still to come!”
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