BANGLADESH Shipping Corporation (BSC) is to modernise its shipping fleet by selling uneconomical vessels no longer, said its managing director Commodore Moqsumul Quader.
Of its 13-vessel fleet, it is to sell five built in the 1980s at a cost price of INR80 million (US$1.2 million) to INR100 million each.
BSC will continue to operate the remaining eight vessels, but will dispose of these should they run at a loss against the fixed operating cost of a ship in the Bay of Bengal or Atlantic at US$5,000 per day, said Cdre Quader, reports the Bangladesh Daily Star.
The plan is to rectify the huge losses it has suffered over the last two decades by ditching ageing vessels, on average 28 years old, and acquire 20 modern higher grade ships by 2020.
According to Mr Quader, the shipping firm has faced challenges brought by IMO's stricter regulations in operating in developed countries and the Middle East.
"Despite these impediments, our ships are operating regionally, in particular, in India, Myanmar and China and also in Qatar in the Middle East," Mr Quader said of the state-owned company which has been hindered by vessel acquisition due to its self-financing positions and its capital constraint.
Despite the government hindering acquisition of new ships through public procurement rules it hopes to gain a product oil tanker with a capacity of 40,000 tonnes and through joint venture a tanker of 100,000 tonnes will join the fleet in November to move crude oil for Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation.
It has entered into a soft loan deal with China which will allow it acquire six more Chinese-built, three product carriers and three bulk carriers delivery expected in 18 months of the signed agreement.
WORLD SHIPPING
26 August 2013 - 19:21
Bangladesh Shipping Corporation upgrades fleet by selling older ships
BANGLADESH Shipping Corporation (BSC) is to modernise its shipping fleet by selling uneconomical vessels no longer, said its managing director Commodore Moqsumul Quader.
WORLD SHIPPING
26 August 2013 - 19:21
Bangladesh Shipping Corporation upgrades fleet by selling older ships
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