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Negros
Navigation Co. (Nenaco) is set to a buy vessel, or
charter a newer ship to expand the volume of cargoes it
wants to handle this year.
Maritime
Industry Authority Administrator Vicente T. Suazo Jr.
said the debt-saddled company, which is currently under
rehabilitation, wants to improve its position in the
country’s cargo-shipping industry.
Suazo
said plans are being drawn, but the expansion of
Nenaco’s fleet is next in line. The shipping firm was
once the country’s largest in terms of passenger volume.
He said
Nenaco has already asked that it be allowed to import
the vessel. It would either buy or charter it.
Latest
numbers from the shipping firm show that carried it
57,399 passengers in November, and carried about 5,960
20-foot containers.
Nenaco
sold MV San Lorenzo Ruiz and MV Mary Queen of Peace to
Liberian firms Chaston Navigation Inc. and Aria
Navigation Inc., respectively, in November last year.
The San
Lorenzo Ruiz—berthed in Manila Bay since September 12,
2005—was sold to Chaston Navigation for $1.6 million.
The double-bottom vessel, built in Japan in 1973, was
registered in Iloilo Port at a gross registered tonnage
(GRT) of 6,051 and a top speed of 15 knots.
On the
other hand, the Mary Queen of Peace—parked in Manila
Bay since May 6, 2006—was sold to Aria Navigation for
$1.86 million. The 7,610-GRT vessel was built in Japan
in 1974 and has a top speed of 18 knots.
A chunk
of the sales proceeds went to the Bank of Commerce, one
of Nenaco’s creditors.
The sale
capped three years of the company’s intention to sell
the vessels that Nenaco said could not be used
efficiently as a result of age.
From
December 2006 to March 2008, Nenaco also sold MV Saint
Ezekiel Moreno and MV Princess of Negros for a total
price of $2.6 million.
With the
sales, Nenaco “settled its obligations to Pilipinas
Shell, Avenue Asia and the Bank of Commerce, all of whom
held chattel mortgages on the vessels,” Nenaco receiver
Monico Jacob said in a report.
According to its rehabilitation plan, Nenaco needs to
sell its old fleet, use the money to buy newer
replacements to operate more efficiently and use the
newer ships to make more money.
The
company is under a 10-year rehabilitation plan that
started in 2004. Its outstanding obligations were
estimated at P2.4 billion that included P1 billion in
bank loans.
Nenaco
posted a turnaround last year when it booked a net
income of P357.44 million for the first 11 months of
2007, up from P449 million in losses a year earlier.
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