CHATTOGRAM, Nov 20: Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC) has planned to procure two mother bulk carriers and 10 lighter vessels by 2021 aiming to carry coal for coal-fired mega power plants.
Apart from bulk carriers, the state-owned corporation has planned to procure two mother tankers with 100,000 to 125,000 tonnes capacity each to carry the entire crude import in the country as Eastern Refinery Ltd (ERL) plans to double its production by 2020.
Managing Director of Bangladesh Shipping Corporation Commodore Yahya Syed said this at a press meet at its conference room at BSC Bhaban at Saltgola in the city this afternoon.
The press meet was organised ahead of the 41st annual general meeting (AGM) of BSC which is scheduled for November 24 at Chittagong Port Authority's Shaheed Fazlur Rahman Munshi Auditorium in the city.
Executive Director (finance) Md Habibur Rahman, Independent Director Md Abdul Quddus, Secretary Khaled Mahmud and other senior officials were present.
Commodore Yahya said he wants to turn the corporation into a modern fleet of international standards in line with Vision 2021 and Vision 2041 as the economy is growing fast.
He said Bangladesh annually imports 3,000,000 tonnes of diesel oil and 350,000 tonnes of jet fuel through state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC).
As the BPC has no mother product oil tankers right now, it will procure two mother product oil tankers having the capacity of 80,000 tonnes each by the year 2021.
BSC has only four vessels. Two of them arrived recently from China. Until adding new vessels to the fleet, it was dragging on its business with only two old vessels having lost their operational life long back.
BSC had a total of 38 ships in its fleet in the past. Most of them were procured second-hand and 36 of them were disposed off in phases. The company failed to procure a single vessel since 1991.
Under a development plan, the BSC is scheduled to receive three product oil carriers and three bulk carriers from China under a concessional loan from the Chinese government.
Two of them were commissioned recently by the BSC and the rest four vessels are expected to join the BSC fleet before February 2019 in phases.
Commodore Yahya said the BSC has currently no feeder container vessel. As the feeder service with BIMSTEC countries including Sri Lanka is going to be launched soon, BSC has planned to procure four feeder vessels of 1,200 to 1,500 tonnes capacity.
The corporation earned net profit of Tk 125.20 million in the fiscal year 2017-18 while Tk 38.6 million in the previous fiscal, he said.
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