Pakistan eyes two tankers to upgrade shipping fleet

Pakistan is acquiring two double-hull tankers at an estimated cost of $ 45 million to upgrade its existing nine-vessel shipping fleet.

The Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNsC), which the PML-N government has short-listed for being privatised, caters to 22 percent of the country's $ 16 billion oil imports and is considered to be, what a director at the Corporation's board said, one of the "finest" public sector enterprises in Pakistan.

The annual general meeting (AGM) held by the company's shareholders Friday was told that the national flag-carrier earned a gross profit of Rs 3.291 billion during the outgoing 2013. This shows a remarkable growth when compared with last year's Rs 2.096 billion.

A listed firm at the Karachi Stock Exchange, the Corporation declared Rs 15.08 earning per share compared to Rs 5.70 of 2012.

"The PNSC gave 10 percent dividend to the shareholders," said Captain Anwar Shah, a maritime consultant and board member of the Corporation.

The analysts believe that this unusually inflated dividend of Rs 10 per share, compared to last year, may have some link with the company's proposed sell-off that the resource-constrained federal government says is due sooner or later.

Friday's AGM also gave a green signal to the PNSC to go for the acquisition of one Aframax oil tanker and one LR-1 Product tanker that would increase the national fleet to 11.

Pakistan presently has nine vessels, six bulk cargo ships and three oil tankers of 656,000 DWT (dead-weight-tonnage).

"The new acquisitions are estimated to be made at $ 40 to 45 million," Shah told Pakistan Today.

Shah, a maritime consultant who Friday was elected unopposed for three more years to the PNSC board as a shareholders' director, said the two vessels were to be second hand that would be purchased from the open international market.

"The shareholders approved the acquisition in today's AGM. Now formal bidding would carried out," said Shah, former director general ports and shipping and chairman Gwadar Port Authority.
Source: Pakistan Today