Peter T. Leach, Senior Editor | Jun 13, 2012 4:52PM EDT
CSAV said it secured a $90 million 12-year loan from Germany’s DVB bank to complete the financing of the last two container ships out of a total of seven ordered from the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in South Korea.
The Chilean carrier took delivery this week of one of these two ships, the Tolten, which, with a capacity of 8,000 20-foot-equivalent units, is the largest in its fleet.
It is the sixth of seven containerships acquired by the company and baptized with the names of Chilean rivers.
The Tolten joins the Teno, Tubul, Tempanos, Torrente and Tucapel, which were delivered between August 2011 and January 2012. The remaining ship, the Tirua, will be delivered later this year to complete the fleet.
CSAV said the acquisition of these ships is an important part of its strategy to increase its own fleet by 37 percent by the second half of this year 2012.
CSAV, which posted a first-quarter loss of $175 million, has been undergoing restructuring and recapitalization in the last year aimed at reducing its losses.
Contact Peter T. Leach at pleach@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter @petertleach.
