Marine Bulk Carriers (MBC), a shipowner based in Cape Town, Republic of South Africa, announced on November 13 that it had inked a newbuilding contract for an Anchor Handling Tug Supply Vessel (AHTS) with Guangxin Shipbuilding & Heavy Industry (GSHI) of China.

This is the second AHTS newbuilding project conducted over the last three months and the newbuilding is planned to be delivered in late 2015.

Chairman Lester Peteni of MBC said that large AHTS market demands spread over the southern part of Africa and, particularly, skyrocketing market demands in Republic of South Africa and Mozambique are notable thus, the company decided to place another AHTS order in a short period time, around three months after the previous contract.

Meanwhile, MBC and GSHI signed a newbuilding contract of a 78m AHTS in mid-June for $30m. Its construction will be completed in 2015 and delivered for an operation offshore Republic of South Africa.