Page 35: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 1997)

FAR EAST UPDATE delivery of the two VLCCs for

Euronav. NITC is planning to fol- low up its recently implemented

Suezmax newbuilding program with a contract for a series of

Aframax tankers.

Malaysian Intl. Shipping Corp. (MISC) has strengthened its con- tractual ties with South Korea's

Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) by awarding the yard a multiple chemtanker deal. The project calls for five 30,000-dwt newbuildings, worth an estimated $225 million, in a deal partially financed through a $150 million, five-year loan from a consortium of foreign banks.

U.S.-based drilling contractor

Reading & Bates and Conoco are forming a new joint venture to fund construction of a $200 million advanced deepwater drillship, the second of its class. South Korea's

Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) has been selected to build the ves- sel. Launch date is set for the first quarter of 1999. The vessel will be designed to drill in water depths of up to 10,000 ft., and will be capable of carrying out extensive well tests.

The two recent containership additions to the orderbook at Halla

Engineering & Heavy Industries (HEHI), thought to be linked with

German principals, are for a com- pany known as Petropolars.

Deliveries are somewhat earlier than had originally been rumored, with the ships actually having been contracted for completion in

September and October 1998, respectively. Rated at 3,400 TEU capacity on 45,000 dwt, each vessel has commanded around $44 mil- lion, about $3 million higher than the unit price for the 2,500-TEU containership pair in hand for

German owner Friedrich Detjen.

Halla also recently announced that it has signed contracts with

Singapore's Tai Chong Cheang

Group (TCC) to build two 170,000- dwt bulkers worth $87 million.

The company and the Singapore government's Trade Development

Board said that an agreement was signed by the honorary chairman of the Halla Group, IY Chung, and the chairman of TCC, KH Koo.

The bulkers will be delivered to

Concord Navigation Ltd., a sub- sidiary of the TCC group. The first vessel is scheduled for delivery in April 1999.

Tai Chong Cheang Steamship, meanwhile, is set to put fresh momentum behind the investment flow for Aframax tanker tonnage.

The Singapore-based company, previously domiciled in Hong

Kong, has signed a letter of intent with Halla for the construction of two 105,000-dwt crude oil carriers.

The tentative commitment to the tanker projects coincides with its $87 million contract at Halla for two 168,000-dwt bulk carriers.

Tonnage replacement and renew- al of Cosco's fleet is the primary target of Kawasaki Heavy

Industries' (KHI) joint venture yard on the lower Yangtza.

Located at Nantong, in the north- ern province of Jiangsu, the joint undertaking between the Japanese group and Cosco will have the capability to construct vessels up to 160,000 dwt, by way of a new shipbuilding dock. The total area of the redeveloped shipyard, at a site where operations have previ- ously been based on floating docks for ship repair, is about 500,000 sq. m. The enterprise is expected to be ready to start newbuilding produc- tion in early 2000, with technology transfer from Japan.

The largest repair/refit contract currently underway at

Sembawang Shipyard is the three to four-month refit of Vietnamese

FPSO Chi Link, which arrived in the yard two months ago. The ves- sel was converted to a FPSO 10 years ago and will undergo a major refurbishment before returning to its station off the Vietnamese coast. Sembawang is also building the necessary process module for the Statoil FPSO currently under construction at South

Korea's Samsung Heavy

Industries (SHI). The modules will be installed by Jurong Shipyard

Ltd (JSL).

ASTANO

P.O. BOX 994 15080 Ferrol

La Coruna - Spain

Tel. (3481) 34 3211

Fax (3481) 34 3252

ASTANDER

P.O. BOX 10 39080 El Astillero

Cantabria - Spain

Tel. (3442) 54 0050

Fax (3442) 54 0026

CADIZ

P.O. BOX 39 11080 Cadiz

Spain

Tel. (3456) 27 3350

Fax (3456) 27 8362

Circle 253 on Reader Service Card

ASTILLEROS ESPANOLES

August, 1997 35