SCI to buy capesize ships worth Rs 1,600 cr

Soon after achieving Navratna status, state-owned Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), has planned an investment of about Rs 1,600 crore to enhance its carrying capacity substantially.

The company is looking to buy four capesize ships, having a carrying capability 1,00,000 metric tonnes each, for which it had invited international bids.

"We have got the bids and we are talking to the company, which has offered the most attractive price," a senior SCI official told PTI.

Each vessel would cost about $90 million (around Rs 400 crore). However, the official declined to give the name of the top contenders for the order.

Capesize ships are cargo vessels, too big to transit the Panama or the Suez canals, and must go around either the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. These vessels typically have a cargo-carrying capability 1,00,000 metric tonnes.

The government recently granted the Navratna status to SCI, thereby removing the restriction on the company to take investment decisions that involve expenditure of only up to Rs 500 crore.

SCI has already announced its plans to purchase 40 vessels worth $2.5-3 billion by 2011.

About 20 per cent of the cost of acquiring these vessels would be met by internal accruals. The rest of the money would be raised through borrowings. The deliveries of these vessels will continue uptil 2014.

By 2014, the total cargo carrying capacity of the state-run firm would be about 10 million tonnes.