Havana, October 28 (RHC)-- Cuba has acquired a large and most modern floating dock for ships repair with an investment of 34 million dollars, local news media reported.
 
The dock arrived at the port of Havana on Saturday, transported by “Xi Guang Hua” semi-submersible vessel after a 52-day cruise through the Indian and Atlantic oceans and the Caribbean Sea.
 
The new structure is the result of a project executed in 18 months by the China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation in Shanghai.
 
85% of the $ 34 million of the financing for its construction belongs to a preferential loan granted by the Chinese Government to the Cuban Ministry of Finance and Prices, and of that figure, $ 29.1 million will be paid in 15 years, according to Cuban television.
 
The dock will admit ships of up to 65,000 tons of displacement of the Panamax type, it is 240 meters long and 48 total beam, and its acquisition is considered a “quantitative and qualitative” jump for the island, which had lost since 2012 its capabilities to repair ships of the Panamax type.
 
Specialists from the Cuban Ministry of Transportation explained that the new naval equipment – certified by its Chinese manufacturers for a period of exploitation of at least 30 years – has a new state-of-the-art system with tactile monitors.
 
Cuba and China maintain close political and economic relations, in which the Asian country stands out as the second trading partner with an exchange that reached about $ 2,000 million in 2018, with a particularly important presence in the development of its telecommunications.
 
The supplies from the Asian country cover a wide range of products present in practically all sectors of the economic and social life of the island, such as health, education, electronics, transportation, information technology, and food.