Hong Kong: China investor Citic Pacific said last week that 13 of its units have agreed to pay a total of US$888 million for 17 ships. The conglomerate has clearly had enough of shelling out huge charter rates over the past four years and has decided to be in control of its own supply chain.
The steel-to-property conglomerate said in a statement that 12 wholly owned units will buy 12 ships with a capacity of 115,000 deadweight tons each to transport iron ore to its special steel businesses in China.
It also said 80.5%-owned Jiangyin Ligang Electric Power Generation Co. will buy five 57,000 dwt ships to transport coal for its power plant.
They are buying the ships from China Shipbuilding Trading Co., China State Shipbuilding Corp., Shanghai Jiangnan Changxing Heavy Industry Co. and Shanghai Shipyard Co.
The ships will be delivered between 2010 and 2012, the statement said.
Citic Pacific said it and Jiangyin Ligang will pay for the ships from their respective internal resources. [17/12/07]
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