China Eximbank provides RMB 1.79 billion buyer’s credit loan to National Iranian Tanker Company for construction of 5 very large crude carriers (Linked to Project ID#71557)

In 2001, China Eximbank and the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) — a state-owned Iranian company — signed a $370 million buyer’s credit loan agreement for the construction of 5 very large crude carriers (or VLCCs). The borrowing terms of the loan are unknown. It is known that the loan was disbursed in two separate tranches: a $110 million tranche (captured via Project ID#71557) and an RMB 1.79 billion tranche (captured via Project ID#67031). It is also known that the borrower purchased buyer’s credit insurance from Sinosure worth approximately $500 million (covering principal and interest repayments). The proceeds of the loan were used to finance a commercial contract that NITC signed with China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation and Dalian Shipbuilding Xinchang in August 1998. The purpose of this project was to purchase five, 300,000 ton VLCCs from China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation and Dalian Shipbuilding Xinchang. The first VLCC (tanker) was delivered in April 2002 and the project was ultimately completed on June 15, 2004.

Additional details

1. The National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC, Persian: شرکت ملی نفتکش ایران‎) is a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company, which was privatized in 2009. 2. The China Eximbank loan that supported this project is not included in the Overseas Development Finance Dataset that Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center published in December 2020.

Number of official sources

6

Number of total sources

8