Aker Yards signs up sextet

Aker Brevik, a part of Aker Yards ASA, has signed a contract to build six 18,000 m3 product-tankers with six Cyprus-based single purpose companies. The 15,000 DWT vessels are to be built at Aker Braila in Romania and the total contract value is around EUR 130 million ($176 million).

The design of the newbuildings was done in Norway and the vessels will be fully built in Romania. This order represents a strategic breakthrough in Aker Yards effort to capitalize on its significant know-how base in Norway in combination with its cost-efficient Romanian production facility enabling the company to compete with Asian shipyards in the growing product tanker market.

The design was developed by Brevik Engineering, a subsidiary of Aker Brevik and the vessels will be approximately 140 metres long, 22 metres wide. When delivered, the vessels will be managed by Marlow Navigation, Cyprus. Construction of the first vessel starts in spring 2005, and is to be delivered in May 2006 with the remaining five vessels to be delivered every four months thereafter.