Leading industrial conglomerate Meghna Group of Industries (MGI) has added four brand new ultramax bulk carriers to its fleet of oceangoing vessels.

Each of the four vessels—MV Meghna Victory, MV Meghna Prestige, MV Meghna Hope and MV Meghna Progress—has 66,000 tonnes capacity and they were delivered on November 21 in 2022.

State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury inaugurated the four vessels at a programme held today afternoon on the deck of Meghna Victory anchored at the newly built Patenga Container Terminal (PCT) of Chattogram port.

This is the second 10-metre draught vessel berthed by the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) having 200-metre length in its jetties and the first such vessel in Patenga terminal.

Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) Chairman Rear Admiral Mohammad Shahjahan, Department of Shipping Director General Commodore Nizamul Haque, HSBC Bangladesh CEO Md Mahbub Ur Rahman and Chittagong Chamber of Commerce of Industry President Mahbubul Alam and NRB Bank Chairman Mohammed Mahtabur Rahman spoke at the programme chaired by MGI Chairman and Managing Director Mostafa Kamal.

In December of 2020, Meghna Group signed a deal with Jiangsu Yangzi-Mitsui Shipbuilding Co Ltd, a China-Japan joint venture company, to build the four ultramax vessels at a cost of $104 million under a project financed by the HSBC.

Out of the four, Meghna Victory carrying 62,000 tonnes of wheat from Vancouver of Canada arrived at the outer anchorage of the port on February 17 and later berthed at PCT.

Another ship Meghna Prestige is now in Mongla port while Meghna Hope and Meghna Progress are currently waiting for sail off the coast of China.

With these four vessels, the number of oceangoing vessels owned by MGI has risen to 22.

With the 22 vessels the total cargo carrying capacity of MGI reached at 12.20 lakh tonnes enabling the MGI securing the top position in operating oceangoing vessels in the country exceeding the long-time topper KSRM Group.

KSRM now has a total of 23 oceangoing vessels in its fleet but their total cargo carrying capacity is 11.77 lakh tonnes.

With MGI's new four, Bangladesh now has 95 flagged vessels.