“The ship was completed last year but the partner has refused to take it under an excuse of economic turbulence,” said Dung.

The official said HVS has not signed any new contract since September 2011 despite its capacity of building 17 vessels a year with a total loading capacity of 1 million tons.

“Orders started to decline in 2010,” he said.

“This year we will hand over 17 ships to foreign partners, and only a few [vessels] next year thanks to some contracts inked two or three years ago.

“If the situation does not get better, we may have to lay off a large number of workers.”

In related news, the Phu Yen Shipbuilding Co, a subsidiary of loss-making Vinashin, yesterday held an auction to sell 510 tons of steel at the facility.

“The metal was bought to build a 4,000 ton vessel and two ships with capacity of 4,100 tons for Binh Dinh Shipbuilding Co,” the company’s director Vo Tan said.

“However, when the first ship, made under a VND70 billion ($3.36 million) contract, was 80 percent completed, the Binh Dinh Co just did not bother to get the ship and ignored us, so we had to stop building due to money shortage.

“The unfinished 4,000-ton ship has been left unattended to since 2008, and become severely deteriorated,” he said.