China Qinfa Group, a leading non- State-owned coal trader on China's mainland, said Sunday it had signed shipbuilding contracts to pay $69 million for construction of two 82,000-DWT bulk carriers.

In a statement filed to the Hong Kong stock exchange, China Qinfa said two of its wholly-owned subsidiaries -- namely Harbor Well and Merit Sino -- had each signed a contract with the Guangzhou Longxue Shipbuilding company, owned by the China State Shipbuilding Corporation. Each of the contract was worth $34.5 million.

Qinfa said the cost would be funded partly by bank lending and partly by the company's internal financial resources.

The company said the purchasing of two bulk carriers was "consistent with the Group's medium-term strategy to improve the overall efficiency of the Group's fleet."

Qinfa also said it was a suitable time for the construction of two new vessels since current construction cost was about 50 percent less than the highest level in 2008.

The two vessels can enhance its ability to control ship transportation cost and mitigate the risks on the fluctuations in the ship transportation cost, it added.

Qinfa's diversified coal business involves purchase, filtering, blending, storage, transportation, sales and shipping of coal on the mainland. It was listed in Hong Kong in July last year.

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