State-owned Shanghai Shipyard Co. Ltd. delivered the second of 10 bulk cargo ships Cuba has ordered in China, Granma reported. The 35,000-ton bulk carrier was delivered in Shanghai in the presence of Foreign Trade Minister Rodrigo Malmierca and the Cuban ambassador in Beijing. The ship was baptized “Leonor” in honor of the mother of independence hero José Martí.
Neither of the two sides revealed the financial terms of the order by Cuba’s Empresa Importadora General del Transporte (EIGT), on behalf of Grupo Acemex, with Chinese state company China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation (CMC). The purchases are financed by China’s Eximbank. According to observers, the order for 10 35,000-ton handymax vessels is worth at least $250 million. The order came in September 2009, ending a one-year drought for the state-owned shipyard. The last of the 10 ships is expected to be delivered in 2013.
The addition of 10 cargo ships will boost the tonnage of Cuba’s merchant marine and allow it to trade with difficult-to-reach trade partners such as Iran, Ecuador or Angola. The addition of grain vessels will lower the cost of grain imports for Cuba; foreign shippers charge a premium for serving Cuba because the United States prohibits ships coming from Cuba to dock in U.S. ports.
In August, the same shipyard in Shanghai delivered the 35,000-ton Abdala, a bulk grain carrier.
Employees of Cuban state company Acemex are supervising the construction of the ships.
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