Vinalines is aiming to offload the six remaining ships of its subsidiary Vinashinlines by the end of next month.
The six ships, and the combined 96 crew, of the cash strapped subsidiary have been held in Pakistan, China, the UAE and India for many months. Vinalines is trying to free the ships to sell them to get urgent collateral to pay off Vinashinlines’ debts.
If the sales fail, the company claims it will try and repatriate the crews and replace them with a new set of seafarers from Vietnam. The seafarers have complained of horrendous conditions onboard.
Vinalines has got a VND200bn ($9.52m) loan from the government to support the sailors of the ships detained in foreign countries and liberate the detained ships.