The orders keep rolling in for Vinashin

Vinashin, the Vietnam shipbuilder, took a major step forward yesterday announcing that it had secured orders to build three VLCC's for Vietnam's state owned oil group, Pertrovietnam.

These will be the first VLCC's built in Vietnam and underlines the government's stated strategy of becoming a major league player in the shipbuilding world.

The deal is worth $200 million and the oil tankers are part of PetroVietnam's ambitions to grow its tanker fleet.

The ships are intended to coincide with the opening of the Dung Quat oil refinery near the shipyard they are to be built in, which is scheduled to begin operations in 2009.

Vinashin has won a slew of orders recently as it strives to compete with other Asian shipyards. Only this week it announced a huge order for 64 ships for Vietnam Shipping Lines, this followed announcement of a tie up with Damen Shipyards for a new shipyard to be built in Vietnam.

Shipping Times UK carried a feature on Vietnam's shipbuilding ambitions two weeks ago, which you can read here.