Chinese fishing company Pingtan Marine Enterprise has expanded its fleet with the acquisition of one reefer and four squid jigging vessels from Fuzhou Honglong Ocean Fishery Co with an investment of approximately RMB 265.3 million (or USD 38.5 million).
According to a company spokesman, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture in 2013 issued an MOA suspending the construction of certain classes of new fishing vessels.
‘To comply with MOA requirements, the company can only expand its fleet through the acquisition of vessels with fishing licences for harvesting the above species,’ Pingtan Marine said.
These recently acquired five vessels are currently licensed and sanctioned by the Chinese Fisheries Management Bureau, which allows the vessels to operate and fish in international waters. Pingtan expects to put these vessels in operation and begin seeing sales of their production during the second quarter of 2017.
‘The rapid growing demands for deep ocean fishing products in China provide a big market for us. According to the FAO, China is a main importer of squid worldwide and market squid prices have been climbing since 2015,’ said Pingtan Marine’s chairman and CEO Xinrong Zhuo.
‘Therefore, The company is committed to expanding our fishing territory while seeking various methods to increase our production capacity and enrich product categories, and acquiring fully licensed vessels from other companies is the most convenient and quickest way to increase our production capacity. We will continue to consolidate our leading position via acquisitions that expand the Pingtan fleet.’
The five vessels are the 1984-built, 2947gt reefer Fu Yuan Yu F91, two smaller squid jiggers built in the early 1980s, Fu Yuan Yu 795 and Fu Yuan Yu 796, plus the Fu Yuan Yu 7880 and Fu Yuan Yu 7881, both of which were delivered new in 2014.
