Mohammad Saeidi, CEO of Iran Shipping Lines, said Saturday that the first delivery of the ordered ships will take place in March 2018, and the remaining nine vessels will be delivered to Iran every 45 days.
According to him, four of the ten ships constructed by the South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries are containers and the rest are tankers. The capacity of these container ships amounts to over 14,500 containers, he added.
“At the moment, Iran’s Shipping Lines has more than 150 large commercial ships with a total capacity of carrying 5.2 million tons of commodity,” he said.
He went on to add, “Iran’s Shipping Lines ranks 20th in the world in maritime transport. The delivery of the ten new vessels will improve our ranking to 16th or 17th.”
Following the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal and the removal of sanctions, in Dec. 2016, South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries signed a $700 million contract with Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines to build 10 ships for Iran’s state-owned shipping company.
Under the contract, which was the first shipbuilding order by Iran since the lifting of sanctions, the company will build container ships and tankers for Iran Shipping Lines, with delivery starting in 2018.
According to The Maritime Executive, the container ships will be 366 meters long and 48.2 meters wide, and the tankers, to be built at Hyunday Mipo Dockyard, will be 183 meters long and 32.2 meters wide. All vessels will meet the latest IMO Tier III requirements for NOx emissions.
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