India's largest private shipliner Great Eastern Shipping Company Ltd (GE Shipping) today said it has contracted to buy a Japan-built second hand vessel which will be delivered to it in the current quarter.
The company now owns a fleet of 32 vessels.
"The GE Shipping has contracted to buy a second hand very large gas carrier (1996 built) of about 76,931 cbm. The Japan-built vessel will be delivered to the company in Q1 FY 2016-17," the company said in a statement.
Earlier this month, the company acquired a tanker with 49,700 DWT, built in Korea.
The company had contracted to buy the ship in December, 2012.
With the inclusion of the Japan-built vessel, the company's fleet would stand at 33 vessels. It includes 23 tankers (8 crude carriers, 14 product tankers, 1 LPG carrier) and 9 dry bulk carriers (1 capsize, 3 kamsarmax, 5 supremax).
The vessels have an average age of 10.4 years aggregating 2.5 million DWT.
The company has recently said it has committed USD 120 million capex by 2018 and already invested USD 38 million.
The company has seen its bottomline surge by 51 per cent to Rs 275 crore on the back of higher income during the December quarter.
GE Shipping is India's largest private sector shipping service provider enjoying a formidable presence in the international maritime industry.
The company said a sizeable part of the tankers enjoy approvals from oil giants like Shell, BP, Exxonmobil and Texaco, among others.
