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Shipbuilding group in debt, projects stalled
State-owned shipbuilding giant Vinashin is running up huge debts and its projects are now behind schedule for months, Tuoi Tre newspaper reported Tuesday.
The paper cited the Nam Trieu Shipbuilding Industry, also known as Nasico, as saying its parent group Vinashin had failed to pay tax bills totaling more than VND8 billion (US$450,000), so the group and its subsidiaries could not claim their imported equipment and other materials from the customs.
According to Nasico, Vinashin also owed $7 million to one of its equipment suppliers Monobuoy, which has warned it will stop delivering goods.
The financial difficulties and the lack of equipment have led to delays in several projects that Vinashin and its subsidiaries have been assigned to implement, Nasico said.
One of the projects, the 150,000 DWT (dead weight ton) floating oil storage depot and offloading unit FSO-5, has had its completion rescheduled many times. It is now expected to be delivered to state-run PetroVietnam 15 months after the original deadline of late last year.
PetroVietnam said the delay would cause it losses of about $50.4 million, not including interest on loans taken to fund the project.
The FSO-5 project, used to store crude oil produced from the Bach Ho oil field off the southern coast, originally cost $110 million, or $50 million lower than the prices offered by foreign contractors. However, the contracted price was later adjusted to $169.2 million.
Another project to build three tankers for PetroVietnam Transportation Corp. is also eight months behind its planned completion date, Tuoi Tre reported.
thanhnien
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