Hanoi (VNA) - An inspection carried outby an independent team on the quality of steel fishing ships built under aGovernment decree revealed that ship-building companies used substandardcomponents for a number of ships, resulting in frequent breakdowns anddegradation.

Tran Van Phuc, Deputy Director of the Binh Dinh Departmentof Agriculture and Rural Development who headed the inspection, announced thefindings at a meeting on June 22.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Nguyen XuanPhuc requested an inspection in 27 coastal provinces to examine the new steelfishing boats, after fishermen complained that poor quality fishing vesselswere preventing them from fishing offshore.

PM Phuc said that as the inspection was goingon, seven vessel owners asked to withdraw their complaint petitions afterworking with the representative of Nam Trieu Ship Building Company. However, inorder to arrive at accurate conclusions about the quality of the vessels, theinspection team still examined 17 vessels built by the Nam Trieu Ship Building Companyand Dai Nguyen Duong Company.

Five steel fishing vessels built by the Dai NguyenDuong Company were made of steel originating from China and 12 steel fishingvessels operated by the Nam Trieu Company had their bodies made of steel fromthe Republic of Korea. On-site inspections of the 17 ships revealed that thepainting on the hulls of five ships had peeled off.

Nine main engines were found to have been madeby the Japanese’s Mitsubishi Company, but a number of other related componentswere not in line with Mitsubishi’s operation principles. The company issued adocument saying it does not make engines of the model and power stated in theengines found on the ships.

Most of these main engines are not workingproperly, the report said.

In 14 of the 17 ships inspected, the fish storagetanks were working improperly, with water stuck in them and thetemperate-maintaining capacity insufficient.

The inspection team also found that ship qualityinspectors had not properly checked the origins and quality certificates of theengines and other components before the vessels were handed over to theirowners.


The inspection team has asked the Nam TrieuCompany to replace 10 main engines and provide evidence of the components’synchrony. The Nam Trieu and Dai Nguyen Duong companies were also asked toclean the surface of the ships’ hull and repaint part or all of the ships inaccordance with the process of maintaining steel shell ships.

The two companies will also have to repair orrenew the damaged storage system due to its inadequate drainage and check forcorrosion in the inner shell, and replace electricity systems on three ships inaccordance with the signed contracts.

The group also asked Nam Trieu and Dai NguyenDuong companies to provide full documentation on the ships’ hulls, engines andmarine equipment, and clear terms of warranty.-VNA