Coastal Group secures $32.6m of vessel orders

Shipbuilder Coastal Group announced on Wednesday that it has secured contracts for the sale of a dynamic-positioning-two (DP2) enabled maintenance/support vessel and two barges for approximately RM98m ($32.6m), Seatrade Asia online reports. The subsidiary of Malaysia-based Coastal Contracts did not name the buyers for the three vessels. Ng Chin Heng, executive chairman of Coastal, said the latest contracts bring the company's total vessel sales orders to around RM500m up to 2012. Ng said the sale for the DP2 vessel is a testament to the emergence of an “inflection point” in the order cycle for specialised offshore support vessels. “An acceleration of order flow in the coming months could materialise as vessel demand from the offshore sector is seemingly turning around in line with the strong crude oil price,” he said.