New Times to start work on first ship in November

Shanghai: Chinese yard New Times Shipbuilding will lay down the keel for its first newbuilding on November 16. The builder's order backlog now consists of 10 163,000-dwt Suezmax tankers and 16 114,000-dwt Aframax tankers. According to a Chinese shipbuilding paper China Shipbuilding, New Times SB, which came into being as a joint-venture yard between China's New Century Shipbuilding and a Singaporean interest, officially commenced newbuilding operation on April 29, 2006. The yard was constructed with a total investment of 1.2bn yuan (about Y18 billion) on a site totaling one million sq.m. New Times will start processing steel materials for its first newbuilding on November 16. [31/10/06]