Syful Islam
A Chinese conglomerate has offered Bangladesh US$ 300 million in preferential loan from its government against supply of seven carriers and vessels for the state - run shipping corporation, officials said Wednesday.

The repayment period of the soft loan at 2.0 per cent interest will be 15 years with two years of grace period.

The Surpass Commercial Corp Ltd (SCCL) has submitted the proposal to the Ministry of Shipping (MoS) recently to supply three product carriers, two bulk carriers, and two container vessels.

According to the proposal, each product carrier with 30,000-35,000 dead weight tonnage (DWT) will cost $43 million, the bulk carrier of 30,000-38,000 DWT $30 million, and the container vessel of 1200 TEUs capacity will cost $25.5 million.

The SCCL claimed to have firm relations with the Chinese government and banks to materialise the preferential loan on government-to-government basis.

The billion-dollar Chinese company's main business is R&D and trade in defence related equipment, culture and arts business, mineral resources investment and development, and real estate.

A senior MoS official told the FE that they would examine the proposal. "If found feasible, we will accept it since Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC) is in immense need of vessels to carry out its activities."

Talking to the FE, the Managing Director of BSC Commodore Moqsumul Quader said there were some proposals from different Chinese companies regarding supply of vessels to the corporation.

He said a Bangladeshi delegation would visit China on June 10 to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Chinese government regarding the supply of the carriers.

The Chinese government will select the company as to which one will supply the vessels to BSC, he said.

The delegation will also visit the shipyard, where the vessels will be built.

At present, the corporation has 11 bulk carriers and two lighter-tankers to run its shipping business.

After nearly two years of continuous attempts, BSC recently got the cabinet committee's approval for buying a mother tanker on joint venture. The BSC will soon float tender in this connection.

Mr Quader said the state entity could not buy any vessel since 1991. "We are running our business with 28-year-old vessels," he said.

Officials said BSC has plan to remove two aging lighterage tankers--MT Banglar Jyoti and MT Banglar Sourav from its fleet as the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) had prohibited the single-hull ships from plying the international routes after December 2010.

Mr Quader said the BSC was running the vessels after carrying out necessary repairing and was yet to abandon any although "those are very old".

Established in 1972, BSC is entrusted with the responsibility of carrying bulk cargoes, chartering service, feeder service, crude oil carrying and lightering, food grain carrying and lightering, agency service, and ship repair.