Chairman of the Ceylon Shipping Corporation Limited, Vice Admiral Jayanath Colombage, and Mr. Vasantha Kumarand, General Manager of the People’s Bank, signed the loan agreement for the purchase of two 63,600 MT DWT bulk carrier ships on 27 May 2014.
The ships are built by AVIC International Beijing Company Ltd at Weihai, China and each is valued at USD 35 million.
The need for acquiring ships for CSCL was stipulated in the 2014 National Budget of Sri Lanka, in order to build up a national fleet in the interest of the country and the national economy.
As the first step in realizing this objective, the Cabinet had approved the purchase of two 63,600 MT DWT bulk carrier ships to the CSCL, mainly intended for transporting the thermal coal imported for the coal fired power plants.
Accordingly, CSCL signed the ship building agreement with M/s AVIC International Beijing Company Limited of China.
The expected time of delivery of the first vessel is October 31, 2015, and the second vessel is expected on January 31, 2016.
The ships will partly replace the foreign owned ships currently being used for coal transport to the country.
The vessels are specially designed to add an extra deck to accommodate around 25 people in addition to its standard crew complement, in order to to provide training for Sri Lanka Marine College Cadets.
[mappress] May 28, 2014