Mercator Lines' Joint MD Atul Agarwal has confirmed that they definitely are looking for new building space, but said nothing has been finalized.

Excerpts from CNBC-TV18's exclusive interview with Atul Agarwal:

Q: The buzz is out that you are contracting two more Chinese bulk to bulk vessels from China, can you give us anything on this?

A: We are looking at various options to place orders for new buildings and we are looking at Chinese yards for these orders, but it is in discussion stage and nothing has been finalized yet. We are definitely looking at new building space.

Q: Talking about your Singapore subsidiary results, we have seen net profit going up by three times and also revenues are up 72%. What’s the outlook over there and do you consolidate these numbers with the listed Indian entity?

A: Yes, we hold 72% shares in the subsidiary and obviously over 50% we have to consolidate, so we will be consolidating these numbers with our Indian results.

Q: Can you tell us how these prospects look for Mercator Singapore in the current year as well, will this kind of performance be sustainable?

A: We hope to do far better than what we have done in the current year because we have recently contracted to buy two more dry bulk vessels, so we are expanding and there is one very large ore carrier (VLOC) in conversion, which will join the fleet in Feburary ’09. So we definitely hope that we will outperform these numbers in the current year.