Chinese firm rents debt-laden Vinashin cruise ship

A China-based shipping company has inked a contract with Vietnamese shipbuilder Vinashin’s offshoot to rent the latter’s Hoa Sen (Lotus) ship for six months.

The contract will cost the Lianyungang CK Ferry Ltd Company $16,500 per day to use Vinashinlines’ Hoa Sen cruise ship, which was designed to be a three-star floating hotel following European Union standards.

After the short-term contract, the Chinese company will continue to hire the cruise ship for longer period of two years.

Troubled state-owned shipbuilder Vinashin bought a Hoa Sen passenger ship for 1.3 trillion dong (US$66.6 million) in 2007.

The Hoa Sen started plying a route between southern HCM City in and northern Quang Ninh Province, the home of Ha Long Bay, in mid-December 2007.

That route ground to a halt in 2009, with the company citing technical problems. The Hoa Sen sit unused and permanently docked at a port in the central province of Khanh Hoa.

Vinashin, came to the brink of bankruptcy last year with debts totalling 86.6 trillion dong and the government ordered the conglomerate to be restructured.

The government has offer debt-laden shipbuilder Vinashin loans with zero interest to pay employee salaries, unemployment compensation and social, health and unemployment insurance. – Tuoitre