PULA SHIPYARD TO COMPLETE SPECIAL TANKER FOR U.S. BUYER

PULA, May 9 (Hina) - Croatia's northern Adriatic shipyard of "Uljanik" is to complete the construction of a special tanker for the transport of chemicals for United States buyer "Stolt Nielsen Transportation Group Limited", sources from the Pula-based shipyard reported on Tuesday. A contract on the completion of the tanker, whose construction began in the French shipyard of ACH, was signed in Houston on April 4 and came into force last week, after the U.S. buyer paid the first instalment. The tanker will be shipped to Pula by the end of the month and has to be finished in 15 months. The tanker is 176m-long, 31-m wide, has a dead-weight of 36,700 tonnes, and can sail at 16.2 knots. Another "Uljanik" contract has come into force, for three ships to be built for "Atlantica spa di Navigazione", an Italian company member of the Naples-based Grimaldi Group. The contract was signed in February, and has recently been ratified after guarantees were issued and the buyer made an advance payment. The three ships are to be delivered in 2001 and 2002. (hina) ha mm