Shipping Corporation of India lines up $6-bn for 110 vessels
08 Mar 2011
New Delhi: State-owned Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) plans to acquire 110 vessels at a total estimated cost of $6 billion over the next ten years, Indian shipping minister GK Vasan said Monday in New Delhi. With these acquisitions fleet-size will grow 140 per cent over ten years.
''SCI is likely to order 26 new vessels during fiscal 2011-12, and the planned fleet expansion will boost its total tonnage to about 7.2 million gross tons by 2020,'' Vasan said.
The minister also informed that earlier the company had placed orders for 36 ships against the targeted acquisition of 62 vessels during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2007 to 2012).
''Of these, five vessels have been delivered while the remaining ones are being built in different Chinese, South Korean and Indian shipyards,'' he said.
SCI is the country's largest shipping line. It currently operates a fleet of 78 ships with a total carrying capacity of 5.61 million deadweight tons, and manages 69 vessels on behalf of various government agencies.
The national line carried 23 million tons of cargo during the first three quarters of fiscal 2010-11 ending Dec. 31, 2010.
SCI earlier reported net profit for the October-December quarter jumped 40 per cent year-over-year to $27.3 million.