Vinashin Wins $4.5b Contracts in Six-Month Period

The Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (Vinashin) signed shipbuilding contracts with foreign partners, including those from Japan, Germany and Israel, worth nearly US $4.5b in the first half of the year. Cargo ships under these contracts were mostly of 5,300 to over 56,000 tons. The corporation has also built 29 new ships with capacity of 1,000 to 3,000 tonnes in this same six month period. Vinashin is working with Japanese and German firms to build cargo ships of 8,700 to 56,300 tonnes and container ships of 900 to 1,100 TEU and with PetroVietnam to build oil tankers. The corporation is focusing on upgrading its 10 shipbuilding subsidiaries in order to make Vietnam become one of the world's four largest shipbuilding countries by 2015. Source: Nhan Dan