State maritime companies ink $2.3 bln shipbuilding deal

Vietnam’s two leading maritime giants have clinched a memorandum of understanding to develop the national ship fleet at total cost of US$2.3 billion by 2015.

Under the deal signed last week between Vietnam Shipping Lines (Vinalines) and Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group (Vinashin), Vinalines ordered 19 vessels from 2007-10 and 45 others five years after that with a total capacity of 2.8 million DWT (death-weight-tons).