Shipping Corporation of India to spend US$6 billion on ships

THE Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) plans to spend US$6 billion on 110 ships over the next 10 years, says Shipping Minister GK Vasan.


SCI operates 78 ships totalling 5.61 million deadweight tons and manages 69 vessels for government agencies, reports Newark's Journal of Commerce. As India's biggest shipping company, it carried 23 million tons of cargo in the last nine months of 2010.


"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," he said.


Mr Vasan said the state-owned corporation had already ordered 36 ships against the targeted acquisition of 62 vessels in the still current 2007 - 2012 five year plan.


"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 posted a 40 per cent year-only-year net profit increase in the last quarter $27.3 million.
(Source:http://www.schednet.com)