MISC awards VLCC contract to Hitachi Zosen

02-05-02 Malaysia International Shipping Corp (MISC) said it has awarded Hitachi Zosen of Japan a contract to build a 298,100-dwt very large crude carrier (VLCC). The state-controlled shipping company said that the award was made early this month and MISC would take delivery of the vessel in April 2003.

MISC said that the vessel was ordered following MISC's success earlier this year in securing a time-charter contract worth RM 500 mm from national oil company Petroliam Nasional (Petronas) to transport crude oil to the refinery in Malacca. The charter contract marks the entry of MISC into the VLCC sector, according to MISC.
It said that in the meantime MISC had chartered the VLCC.MT Limburg to service the Petronas contract be fore it obtained its own vessel. The company also said that it had recently set up a joint venture with Saudi shipping company Bakri Group to expand into the global energy transportation sector operating out of the Middle East.