JEDDAH: The National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (NSCSA) will sign four shipbuilding contracts plus two additional optional contracts on Sunday, with Hyundai MIPO of South Korea. The contracts value including the two optional deals amounts to SR1.543 billion.
This comes as an implementation to its current strategic plan, which calls for expanding the general cargo sector, and in particular continuation and expansion of the RoRo, general and project cargo areas that are of paramount importance for maximizing shareholders returns and supporting the Kingdom's economy, according to a company's statement on Tadawul's website.
The delivery of the ships is expected to start by the end of 2012 till the end of 2013, and for the two optional ships the delivery will take place in 2013 for the first vessel and the first quarter of 2014 for the second one, subject to NSCSA exercising the option.
Those ships are specialized in carrying general and project cargo, and several types of RoRo (roll on roll off) cargo. The ships are equipped with heavy lift cranes and the deadweight of the ship is about 26,000 tons, in addition to the capability in carrying containers, in the designated area of the ship.
Despite that the deadweight of those ships is less than the current ones, those ships excel in capacity utilization and lower fuel consumption.
The first four ships will replace the current aging fleet in this sector, which are planned to be out of service for NSCSA during 2012-13. The new ships will be serving as a liner between the US east coast to the Middle East (Red Sea-Arabian Gulf) and to the Indian subcontinent via Europe.
The company currently is discussing with the Public Investment Fund and a number of commercial banks to finance about 80 percent of the project value through Shariah-compliant financing for a 12-year tenor. The remaining 20 percent will be financed through the company's internal financial resources.
© Arab News 2011
