Oswal Group Global, led by India-origin industrialist Pankaj Oswal, today said its subsidiary Maruti Shipping is investing $320 million in nine ships being built at Yangzhou Guoyu Shipyards in Jiangsu province of China.
The first of the fleet, a 57,000-tonne dry bulk carrier, was taken today and the rest would be delivered by 2012, Oswal Group Global said in statement.
Some of the other ships that are at various stages of construction have already been chartered to some of the largest companies in the sector, including Klaveness Chartering, BVI and Pacific Chartering, it added.
"At least one ship may be used to transport resources to Oswal's expanding global petrochemicals plants," it said. All of the Oswal fleet of ships will be Singapore flagged.
Oswal, the Chairman and Managing Director of Oswal Group Global, has a diversified portfolio of assets valued at over $5 billion. These include Burrup Fertilisers, the world’s largest single train merchant ammonia plant located in Western Australia, as well as interests in petrochemicals, resources, transport ,logistics, property and lifestyle.
"This marks an important milestone in the future of the Oswal Group Global, bringing our company into partnership with the Chinese for the first time. We look forward to building a strong working relationship across all our business units with China and Singapore in the future," he said.