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Vinashin’s pricey ship runs aground
Vietnam’s state-owned ship building firm Vinashin bought a passenger ship for USD$89.3 million, used it for 13 months and then docked it for close to a year.
The Hoa Sen (Lotus) started plying a route between southern Ho Chi Minh City in and northern Quang Ninh Province, the home of Ha Long Bay, in mid-December 2007.
That route ground to a halt in January, with the company citing technical problems. The Hoa Sen now sits unused and permanently docked at a port in the central province of Khanh Hoa.
Doan Duy Hung, vice captain of the ship, told Tuoi Tre newspaper that it is under construction and awaiting parts from Italy.
He said he is one of the 17 members of the crew and his present duty is to maintain the ship by periodically running its engine during the repair.
According to Dutch-based website www.worldshipsocietyrotterdam.nl, Lotus was transformed from an Italian ferry that was built in 2000 and sold to an oceangoing transport firm under Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (Vinashin) in 2007.
After thirteen months on the route, the Lotus suspended its service in January 2009 to repair cracks on its hull and software-related problems plaguing its automatic operation system.
Ship captain, Nguyen Dinh Son, said the Lotus made around 40 trips on the itinerary, carrying passengers, cars and lorries between HCMC and Quang Ninh.
But the debts were starting to pile up. Each trip cost the liner 100 tons of fuel worth VND1 billion ($56,000). And that is for fuel alone, excluding wages, operational fees, and mechanical attrition.
The costs heavily outweighed what the boat was bringing from a few dozen cars and 40 passengers a trip, Hung said.
Do Dung, vice director of Vinashin’s sea transport firm, said the Hoa Sen will restart the service soon and its operations in 2008 were only trial runs.
Recently, waste at state-run Vinashin has caught the public’s eye as the corporation sinks into debt and announces delays of many of its major shipbuilding projects.
Vinashin interior affair director, Ngo The Viet, conceded to Tuoi Tre newspaper that the agency owes US$15.4 million to customs departments and partners, despite being handed $750 million by the government in 2005.
Le Nam, Cam Van Kinh
vietnews
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