23 Nov 2010 15:13

United Ship-building Corp negotiating up to $1 bln credit for 2011

NOVASHINO, NIZHNY NOVGOROD REGION. Nov 23 (Interfax) - OJSC United Ship-building Corporation (USC) is talking with Vnesheconombank (VEB) and Sberbank of Russia about getting a credit next year of up to $1 billion for a term of at least ten years, head of USC's financial division Sergei Chenchikov told the press.

The funds raised will be put into building new wharfs in Russia's Far East, Chenchikov said. "At the present moment, we are negotiating with VEB, an application has been made, and with Sberbank, which whom negotiations have only just begun, and we are readying a package of documents," he said.

The credit might possibly be raised not from a single bank, but from among a consortium of banks, he said.

By 2013, USC plans to begin production at two new shipyards in the Far East: Zvezda-DSME (a joint venture with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Maritime Engineering) at the Zvezda shipyard, Primorye, and the Vostok-Raffles shipyard (a joint venture with Yantai Raffles) in Chazhma Bay at the town of Dunai, Primorye.