The Egyptian government signed on Monday construction contracts for two MPC14K multi-purpose ships with the South Korean company Dae Sun Shipbuilding & Engineering Co.
The contracts aim at restoring the strength of the Egyptian merchant marine fleet and actively contributing to transferring Egypt’s foreign trade and benefiting from the volume of trade with Europe and East Africa.
They also come as part of a comprehensive plan by the Transport Ministry to build a strong national Egyptian commercial fleet to transport Egyptian trade, in implementation of the directives of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi to restore the strength of the Egyptian commercial fleet and make the best use of its strategic location on the Red and Mediterranean Seas and on international shipping lines.
Minister of Transport Kamel El-Wazeer said that these contracts include building 2 multi-purpose ships according to the best international specifications in the shipbuilding industry.
The capacity of the ships is 15,800 m3, a tonnage of 14,000, a speed of 14 knots, a container load of 709 and 98 refrigerated containers for each ship.
They also apply the best technologies that provide flexibility of operation for the two ships, which in turn will allow Egyptian exports to reach regional markets, especially since general cargo ships are designed to transport a wide range of goods such as general cargo, bulk cargo, heavy cargo as well as vehicles such as cars.
“Today is an important day for maritime transport in Egypt as this sector is considered one of the most important sectors of the Ministry of Transport and a comprehensive plan is being implemented for its development according to several axes,” the minister said.
He added that the plan includes the development of ports and berths, so that these berths reach 90 km berths, and the second axis of maritime transport development is fleet development, whether in terms of tonnage or the variety of boats and their capacity.
“We are racing against time to launch the Egyptian commercial fleet to contribute effectively to the transfer of Egypt’s foreign trade and benefit from the volume of trade with Europe and East Africa by operating lines for Egyptian ships passing through North Africa and then heading to Europe and other lines to East Africa,” the minister said.
In press statements on the sidelines of the conference, the minister confirmed that a plan has been drawn up to manufacture commercial ships in Egypt through cooperation with the South Korean company and other international companies.
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