Spanish naval shipbuilder Navantia has landed an order for four Suezmax tankers with two others on option from Spain’s Ibaizabal group.
Navantia, which had its civil shipbuilding and repair activity capped at 20% of revenues until the end of last year on the orders of the European Commission, will start work on the contract in the fourth quarter of this year, with the first vessel scheduled for delivery in late 2017.
It said that the contract, now ratified, would bring three million hours of work to its yards in the Bay of Cadiz and the River Ferrol estuary and other ancillary businesses.
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It gave no price for the order but assured that the tankers would be built at the international market prices. The four vessels will measure 274 m by 48 m.
This is something that European yards have not generally been able to achieve in recent years but Navantia is working on the order with Daewoo group engineering subsidiary DSEC, which it said had experience in tanker building and well-established designs which would enable it to avoid the risks associated with the project.
Most of the assembly work for the new vessels is to be carried by Navantia’s yards in the Bay of Cadiz, while bow and other blocks and engine room modules are to be assembled in the River Ferrol estuary.
There was no immediate response from Ibaizabal to a query from IHS Maritime regarding its plans for the new vessels. The group, which is based in the Bilbao area, is active in tanker operation and towage.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.
