By Xinhua,
Manila : After its flagship vessel’s capsizal, the Philippine shipping company Sulpicio Lines on Tuesday said it has decided to defer plans to acquire additional vessels before the end of this year.
Sally Buaron, Sulpicio Lines vice president for passage, disclosed the decision as she admitted that the firm’s suspension of plans to purchase two additional ships is due to the tragedy involving one of its passenger vessels MV Princess of the Stars, Philippine TV network GMA News reported.
On its way from Manila to Cebu, the 23,800-ton M/V Princess of the Stars sank at the height of Typhoon Fengshen which lashed the archipelago from east to west over the weekend. There were 862 people on board, most of whom are still missing.
“There were plans (to acquire vessels) but because of this (incident) we’re trying to review our plan of acquiring new vessels,” Buaron said.
According to Buaron, prior to the accident, the firm was working on the acquisition of a cargo vessel and a smaller passenger ship to add to their existing 11 passenger ferry and seven cargo liners.
Buaron declined to give the cost involved in the planned acquisition, but said the capacity of the ships eyed were the same as their existing ships.
She admitted that the sea mishap involving MV Princess of the Stars will definitely affect the firm’s operations as well as its revenue growth targets for this year.
MV Princess of the Stars cost around 5 million dollars but this does not include the cost of the upgrade and rehabilitation.
“Definitely it has an effect (on our operations and revenues) but I no longer want to compute the losses because it just pains me,” Buaron said.
Buaron also confirmed that as of Sunday, passengers that have already purchased tickets for other Sulpicio Lines trips have started refunding while others have canceled their bookings.
In a separate interview, Vicente Suazo, administrator of the Maritime Industry Authority, confirmed that Sulpicio Lines had earlier sought the agency’s permission to go ahead with the planned acquisition prior to Saturday’s incident.
“They asked permission (to us) to import (two vessels) from Japan but I don’t know the exact details except that its size is around 24,000 gross tonnage almost the same size as MV Princess of the Stars,” Suazon said.