Taiwan shipbuilding company has enough orders until 2012

Fuente: Earthtimes

Taipei - Taiwan's state-run shipbuilding company CSBC has received orders for 11 container ships, which boosts CSBC's total orders to 67 ships, enough to keep CSBC busy until 2012, the company said on Tuesday. On Monday, CSBC signed a contract to build seven container ships for Taiwan's Yangming Marine, CSBC President Fan Kuang-nan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The order, worth 800 million US dollars, is for five 8,240-TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) container ships and two 6,600-TEU container ships, to be delivered before 2012.

The Yangming order comes at the heels of a European shipping company's order for four container ships.

CSBC president Huang signed the contract in Switzerland last week. It includes a firm order for four 1,700-TEU container ships worth 250 million US dollars, with the option for two more.

Huang refused to name the European shipping company, saying only it is among the world's top-20 container shipping companies.

CSBC Taiwan, which is 99 per cent state-owned, is seeking to become privatized by the lowering government stake to less than 50 per cent.

It hopes to achieve its goal of privatization before the end of 2008 by finding a local or foreign buyer or buyers.

But the privatization will not affect CSBC's operations because CSBC has orders for 67 container vessels on its hand, enough to keep it going until 2012.

"Global recovery has stimulated the shipping industry, which has resulted in the increased ship orders," Huang said.