The National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (NSCSA) was formed by a Royal Decree in the year 1979 as a Public Company, 28% ownership held by the Public Investment Fund "PIF" of the Saudi Government and the remaining is widely held in public shares by Saudi Nationals. NSCSA has grown from a small shipping firm operating multipurpose vessels to become one of the biggest shipping conglomerates in the world and occupies a pre-eminent position among its industry peers at national, regional and international levels in all sectors of its business operations. It is the first national carrier, having celebrated its Silver Jubilee in the year 2004 and continues to successfully stride the triumphant march in 30 years of its existence and has generated a strong VIP customer base. During the course of its diversification, the Company's services have been expanded to include transportation of General cargo, Crude oil, Chemical and Liquefied Petroleum Gas "LPG". Having started off its operations for transporting general cargo and containers initially. The company with its commendable track record, has established the reputation of providing high standard of services to its customers in all sectors. NSCSA owns and operates 17 Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs), which all are of high international standards. In its desire to expand further, NSCSA entered into LPG transportation business by acquiring 30.3 percent share from Petredec Limited, which is the leading company in LPG transportation in the world. NSCSA owns a fleet of 19 chemical carriers through its subsidiary the National Chemical Carriers (NCC) which was established in partnership with SABIC and has become one of the largest companies of the world in this field. The company also owns 4 fully owned multipurpose vessels, deployed between Arabian Gulf - Indian Subcontinent - Red Sea - Mediterranean - US / Canada East Coast route on a twenty one day frequency. The company also invested in on-land facilities by building a container service yard at the Jeddah Islamic Port to facilitate container storage and maintenance / repair services. NSCSA signed 4 shipbuilding contracts + 2 additional optional contracts on Sunday, the 06th March, 2011 with Hyundai MIPO of South Korea. The delivery is expected to start by the end of 2012 onward until the end of 2013; and for the 2 optional ships, the delivery will take place in 2013 for the 1st one, and during the 1st quarter of 2014 for the 2nd one subject to NSCSA exercising the option. These ships are specialized in carrying general, projects cargo and several types of RoRo cargoes and are equipped with heavy lift cranes; and each ship with a dwt of approx. 26,000 tons. The first 4 ships will replace the current aging ABHA fleet. NSCSA has established Mideast Ship Management Ltd., with a vision to provide professional ship management services to its fleet and other shipping companies. NSCSA through its subsidiary (NCC) signed a 50:50 joint venture with Odfjell of Norway to establish operating company in Dubai to commercially operate their combined fleet of coated chemical tankers in a pool. This will reinforce NCC position as a major player in the chemical transportation industry.