Seatrade Maritime is part of the Informa Markets Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Mercantile Shipping Company ups fleet size

Mercantile Shipping Company ups fleet size

Colombo: Sri Lanka's Mercantile Shipping Company has bolstered its existing general cargo and semi-container fleet of four ships with the delivery of a pair of new multipurpose cargo ships from Bodewes Ship Yard in the Netherlands. The vessels, sized at 7,800 dwt each are the smallest in the company fleet and both classed by Bureau Veritas. The largest vessel is the 17,430 dwt Mercs Matale which was built in 1990 and is also classed by BV. Pictured is its 1985-bui8lt, GL-classed vessel Safmarine Soyo.

The new sister ships are slated for deployment on international trading routes both within the Indian Ocean and beyond as the company is reported to be pursuing overseas business.

Lanka Business Online reports that Mercantile Shipping Company declared a loss of 18.8 million rupees in its September quarter results recently released to the stock exchange as compared with a profit of 9.5 million rupees the year before. Its group sales in the quarter rose 62% to 118.5 million rupees from a year ago.  [24/12/09]