Troubled Vietnam shipbuilder gets fourth chief in four months

Oct 6, 2010, 4:42 GMT

Hanoi - The Vietnamese government has appointed a new chief executive officer for the state-owned Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group (Vinashin), its fourth head since July, the troubled company's new head said Wednesday.

'I received the decision yesterday that I was being appointed the new CEO of Vinashin,' said Truong Van Tuyen, 60, former deputy general director of the state-owned Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam).

Tuyen replaces acting chief executive Nguyen Quoc Anh, who was appointed on August 30.

Anh took over from Tran Quang Vu, who was suspended and then arrested on charges of mismanaging state assets when he was the head of a Vinashin subsidiary in the early 2000s.

Vu was appointed July 1 to replace Vinashin's founding director Pham Thanh Binh, after a government audit revealed the company had amassed 4.5 billion dollars in debt. Binh was arrested in August, also on charges of mismanaging state assets.

The move to appoint Tuyen highlights tensions between PetroVietnam and Vinashin. Vinashin has been late and over budget on major ship orders for PetroVietnam, and six of the shipbuilder's subsidiaries are to be transferred to PetroVietnam as part of the group's restructuring.

In April Vinashin delivered a crucial 150,000-deadweight-ton floating storage unit to PetroVietnam, two years late and at least 59 million dollars over budget. A 104,000-deadweight-ton supertanker, originally scheduled for delivery in March 2008, remains unfinished.

Vinashin got into financial difficulties when it diversified beyond its core business and the global recession hit its revenue. The government has promised to bail the company out.

Last month the government ordered local commercial banks to suspend Vinashin's debt repayments, and extended the company at least 130 million dollars in government funds to pay off foreign debt.

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