China alone remains good sailor in bidding course

None else than China is offering 'suitable' proposals for selling vessels to Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC), officials said, which implies a walkover.
Presently, at least six project proposals--all from China--on procurement of vessels by the BSC are under negotiations, they added.
BSC managing director H R Bhuiyan acknowledged heightened Chinese interest in offering the shipping supplies to Bangladesh. "We also received proposals from other countries but those are very little in number."
Mr Bhuiyan is now heading a six-member technical subcommittee to set specifications and fix prices of vessels to be procured under six projects. The vessels will be collected under government-to- government arrangement under Chinese preferential or concessional loan.
"We received a few offers from Spain and Turkey but their terms and conditions were not suitable for us," he told the FE.
China and Bangladesh have signed a concessional loan agreement for collection of six vessels with Chinese Exim Bank funding. The deal was signed on October 14 during Chinese President Xi Jinping's Dhaka visit.
 The BSC had signed a commercial deal with China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CMC) on April 30, 2014 for buying three bulk carriers and three oil tankers at a cost of US$184.50 million.
 The corporation signed several memoranda of understanding (MoU) with Chinese companies in the recent months to collect vessels under government-to-government dealings.
 Another MoU deal was done with CMC in December last year to collect two 30,000-35,000 deadweight tonnage (DWT) crude oil tankers. The project got approval from the planning commission this past May.
The corporation also signed a MoU with China Harbour Engineering Co Ltd to collect 10 bulk carriers of 10,000 to 15,000 DWT each.
 To carry coal for Rampal power plant the BSC has moved to buy six mother bulk carriers of 100,000 to 125,000 DWT each. To this effect it signed a MoU with China Harbour Engineering Co Ltd in September this year.
 The shipping corporation is also working for a buy of four mother product oil tankers of 100,000 to 125,000 DWT each.
The mother vessels will be bought for carrying petroleum fuels once the single-point mooring (SPM) is built. The SPM will be built in the Bay of Bengal from where petroleum products will be carried through pipelines from mother vessels into the oil-storage tanks onshore.
  Presently, the BSC has a mixed fleet of five vessels with a combined carrying capacity of nearly 0.076 million tonnes. The fleet comprises one container vessel, two multipurpose cargo vessels and two lightering tankers.
 Earlier, Mr Bhuiyan had told the FE that the corporation had set a target of procuring 21 vessels by 2021 in line with government's Vision-2021.
 The ministry of shipping (MoS) has approved the projection and steps are there to meet the goal, he said.
 Established in 1972, BSC is entrusted with the responsibility of carrying bulk cargos, food-grains and crude oil, chartering, tramping and feeder services, unloading and providing agency service and ship repairing.
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