The first vessel will be arriving in Sri Lanka in November this year and the second vessel will be arriving in March 2016 where both are being currently being manufactured in China, Chairman of the Ceylon Shipping Corporation Sashi Danatunga told Ceylon FT yesterday.
Each of these two vessels have a capacity of 63,000 tonnes and will be used to transport coal from Russia and Indonesia, which will enable the Ceylon Shipping Corporation to be a vessel owning entity again, he said, adding that the corporation had around 22 vessels during the previous regime, which were sold out.
He explained that all the two new vessels were ordered under the tenure of the previous regime which the present government was compelled to follow, despite the global freight were very low and competitive. " There are enough Greek ship yards which are having vessels which are offering vessels which are very competitive but, we are compelled to proceed with the order that the previous government had contracted with," he said.
The CSC Chairman also said that there was a total need for around 22 vessels to transport coal to the Norochcholai plant and the remain requirement would be leased out, making use of the competitive international freight rates at present.
Some of the other advantages which will accrue to the country will be the training of crew members and they will be able to graduate to the levels of Captain, First Officer and Chief Engineer, he said.
Courtesy: Ceylon Financial Times 16 June 2015