Mercantile Shipping to acquire two new multi-purpose vessels
Posted on: Saturday, February 28, 2009 ; 01:44 IST
Sri Lanka’s Mercantile Shipping Company Ltd will acquire by this year end two new multi-purpose vessels, each of 7,800 tons dead weight, being built in Ukraine.
The Company has invested US$30 million to build the two ships which will be contracted to a leading European shipping company on charter for two years.
The ships, which are currently being built in Ukraine, would be taken to Germany to fit the engines and for the final touches.
Mercantile Shipping owns three multi-purpose ships of 3,000 tons to 12,000 tons capacity. The new vessels have a length 118.55 metres and width 15.20 metres. The ship has a twin deck and two cranes of 60 tons capacity each, besides a container capacity of 345 TEU and operating speed of 14 kms.
Sri Lanka’s State Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Corporation (SPMC) will invest LKR 90 million to expand its production facility and warehouse facility this year.
The third 80-ton Bollard pull anchor handling tug supply vessel (AHTSV) built by Colombo Dockyard PLC (CDPLC) for Greatship Global Offshore Services Pte Limited of Singapore (GGOSL) was delivered on February 18, 2009.
Bilateral trade between Sri Lanka and Pakistan is expected to increase four-fold to US$ one billion in the near future with the recent signing of a free trade agreement between the two countries.
