Fourfold Rise in Hormozgan Watercraft Orders

The number of new orders for waterborne vessels placed with workshops located in Hormozgan Province in the four months since March 21 has increased 327% compared with the same period of last year to reach 72, Allah-Morad Afifipour, director general of the Ports and Maritime Organization of the southern Iranian province, said on Tuesday. 
PMO provides a bigger share of the finance needed to build domestically-made watercraft by granting loans to boatyards, the official was quoted as saying by Fars News Agency. 
Afifipour made the remarks on the sidelines of the launch of a 25.95-meter aluminum cruising catamaran (a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size), named Almas Qeshm 1, which is certified to carry 158 passengers and eight crew members.  
“There are 39 vessels, including the new catamaran, with a total of 4,100 seats carrying passengers from Qeshm to Bandar Abbas, Hormoz and Larak Island,” he said. 
Hormozgan Province is home to 43 workshops involved in building wooden, aluminum, fiberglass and metal boats.
“Nearly 60% of orders received by Hormozgan’s boatbuilding workshops are from other southern provinces,” he concluded.