August 2 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian maritime shipping company Navibulgar said on Wednesday it has signed a contract with one of the three largest Chinese shipyards to build six 45,000-deadweight tonnage (dwt) bulk carriers.
The price of the deal exceeds $100 million (85 million euro), Navibulgar said in a statement.
Each vessel will have a maximum draft of 10.80 m, a reinforced hull, and a propulsion mechanism for sailing in ice-covered waters such as the Baltic Sea, the Sea of Azov and Canada region, the company added.
The first ship is expected to be delivered as early as mid-2019, and the Chinese shipyard has already confirmed that within one year it will be able to deliver the other five vessels.
Navibulgar also said that it had added two brand new Bluetech 42 handy size bulk carriers to its fleet over the past months and expects a further two such ships, a part of the same project, to be completed next year.
In November, Navibulgar said it was in the process of purchasing four 36,500-deadweight tonnage (dwt) sister ships from Switzerland's ABC Maritime, with the investment expected to exceed $32 million, Rumen Krastev, Navibulgar's sales and purchases department manager, told SeeNews at the time.
In 2008, Bulgarian-German consortium KG Maritime Shipping bought 70% of Navigation Maritime Bulgare (Navibulgar) from the Bulgarian state and vowed to invest 780 million levs ($424 million/3.99.4 million euro) into the company within 10 years, aiming to make it the biggest maritime carrier in the Mediterranean area. Navibulgar employs more than 1,000.
($ = 0.8452 euro)