Emarat order takes Hanjin HI's 2006 tally to $1.7bn

Dubai: Following Hanjin Heavy Industries' disclosure yesterday of a further four aframax orders from an unidentified "UAE shipowner" - exclusively reported here last week as Emarat Maritime, one of the country's fastest growing shipowners - the Korean yard's order tally for the year has passsed $1.7bn giving it three-and-a-half years' backlog of full employment. The quartet of 114,000dwt vessels is due for delivery by March 2010 in a deal worth $262m. Emarat Maritime previously booked four tankers of the same size with Hanjin HI in July. Managing director Capt Jitendra Misra gave a brief outline of his company's rapid growth since it came into being in the 1990s as the ship operating arm of the Sharaf Group at the Seatrade Middle Mast Maritime convention in Dubai last week. Misra is also secretary general elect of the new UAE Shipowners' Association, due to be formally launched next month, while the president elect is Group vice-chairman Sharafuddin Sharaf.  [12/12/06]