South Korea: G E Shipping Takes Delivery of VLCC Vasant J Sheth from HHI

The Great Eastern Shipping Company Ltd. (G E Shipping) took delivery of its 318,000 dwt Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) “Vasant J Sheth” from Hyundai Heavy Industries Ltd, (HHI) South Korea today and subsequently delivered the vessel to its new buyers.

The ships features 319m in length, 60m in width, and 30m in depth with service speed of 16.3 knots.

This is the last vessel out of the 3 VLCCs which the Company had ordered at HHI in April 2010 and subsequently contracted to sell in Q1 FY12. The second vessel (VLCC) Ardeshir H Bhiwandiwalla was delivered from the shipyard on February 15th 2012.

The Company’s current fleet stands at 34 vessels, comprising 24 tankers (9 crude carriers, 14 product carriers, 1 LPG carrier) and 10 dry bulk carriers (1 Capesize, 3 Kamsarmax, 1 Panamax, 4 Supramax, 1 Handymax) with an average age of 8.9 years aggregating 2.62 mn dwt.

Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), the world’s number one shipbuilder, leads the shipbuilding industry with a 15% share of the market. The Hyundai shipyard stretches over four kilometers along the coast of Mipo Bay in Ulsan, Korea. The Shipbuilding Division is capable of building all types of ships to meet various demands from its clients.

The company operates 10 drydocks equipped with 9 Goliath cranes and cutting-edge construction facilities in Ulsan and Gunsan. Each drydock and facility is specially designed to build ships the most efficiently for that ship type: Drydock No.1 is mainly assigned for drillships; Drydock No.3, with a capacity of 1 million DWT, can build containerships and tankers at the same time; Drydocks 6 and 7 build naval ships and special purpose vessels; and Drydock No. 8 is for LNG ships. The Gunsan Shipyard, built in 2009, features a 1.3 million DWT drydock, a 1,650 ton Goliath crane and state-of-the-art production facilities, in which 20 ships can be built annually.

[mappress]

Shipbuilding Tribune Staff, May 10, 2012; Image: hhi