Government of Montenegro to buy two Chinese merchant ships

Montenegrin Government has signed the contracts on purchase and building of two Chinese merchant ships worth 55.6m USD, which should be delivered by the end of year 2012.

- The contract on purchase of ships has been signed in Shanghai with "Poly Group" from Beijing, while their construction is contracted with the shipyard from Shanghai - the Ministry of Transportation of Montenegro announced.

The ships' capacity is 35,000 tons, and they are over 179.9 m long and 28.4 m wide. These traders are suitable for transportation of dispersed freights (cereals, wood, ores), and they will have four built-in sets of cranes with the capacity of 30 tons and the span of 24 meters. The main engine is MAN B&W of 6480 KW with 136 rpm. The ships are designed according to the 2009 latest technology, and they will be sailing under Montenegrin flag.

- Purchase and building of these ships will be financed from the loan that the Government of China grants to friendly countries as a development aid - it is stated in the announcement and added that "the obtained loan is twice better than the commercial loans".

The repayment period for the loan is 15 years, with the fixed interest rate of 3% and grace period of five years.

People in the Government expect the Chinese bank to finish the credit arrangement procedure in three weeks, which should mark the beginning of the period for realization of the contract on construction and purchase of ships.