Dhaka: Bangladesh's leading shipbuilders have won deals worth $355 million to supply over 30 smaller ocean-going ships to shipping firms in Germany by next year end, officials said on Sunday.
"German ship-owners have already ordered Bangladeshi shipbuilders to supply more than 30 ships worth 250 million euro," Frank Meyke, German ambassador to Bangladesh told reporters.
The ships, with a deadweight tonnage of 4,100-4,800, are contracted to be supplied by the end of next year, an official of Western Marine Shipyard Limited (WMSL) told Reuters.
WMSL, based in the southeastern port city of Chittagong, and Ananda Shipyard and Slipways Limited, located at Meghnaghat on the river Meghna, near the capital Dhaka, are prominent ship builders in Bangladesh.
"The shipbuilding sector is a promising new field of Bangladesh exports to Germany. It is expected to prominently figure in our trade statistics in the years to come," Meyke said.
The two leading shipbuilders have also won orders worth millions of dollars from shipping companies in the Netherlands, Denmark, Singapore and Mozambique, the WMSL official said. But he could not give an exact figure immediately.
Bangladesh has a long history of shipbuilding and more than 90 percent of the 6,000-plus coasters and tankers in use there were built locally. [27/07/09]
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