Orders For Six Ships To Cost $180 Million Placed By Cast Group

Cast Containers S.A. of Fribourg, Switzerland, recently announced that the Cast Group has just ordered three new vessels to be built in Korea for its North Atlantic Container Service. This order is in addition to three container vessels contracted for in Yugoslavia earlier this year. The total value of the six vessels is $180 million (U.S.).

At a press conference in Montreal, Klaus Glusing, president of Cast Containers S.A., explained that the announcement is part of an expansion program totaling $235 million (U.S.) which, in addition to the six new vessels, also includes : acquisition of a fleet of 4,000 forty-foot containers to augment Cast's existing fleet of 14,- 000 twenty-foot containers; purchase of two Japanese-designed container gantry cranes for the company's Montreal terminal; and the tripling in size of Cast's truck operations in Europe and North America to 270 tractor trucks.

The expansion program, including the delivery of the six new ships, which will double and bring to 180,000 TEUs, (twenty-foot equivalent units) Cast's annual carrying capacity, is scheduled to be completed in 1982.

"The six new 70,000-dwt ships have been designed for a new age, the age of fuel economy, and are expected to be the most cost effective container carriers on the N o r t h A t l a n t i c , " Mr. Glusing said.

The two shipyards receiving the orders are Hyundai of Korea and 3 Maj Shipyard in Rideka, Yugoslavia.

Cast is part of Eurocanadian Shipholdings Limited, a privately owned group of shipping companies controlled by three Canadian e n t i t i e s : the family-owned investment company of F. Narby, founder of the Cast Group; Helix Investment Ltd., and the Canadian National Railways.

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