Bangladesh is set to hand over two of its largest-ever sea-faring cargo vessels to a German company on Friday.

The 100-metre long ships can safely carry 5,200 tonnes at a go. The ice-class ships, built completely under supervision of Bangladeshi engineers, would be handed to Grona Shipping Limited at Chittagong Dry Dock.

Industries minister Dilip Barua, German state secretary of federal foreign office Martin Biesel and German ambassador to Bangladesh Holger Mitchell will be present when the Germans take delivery of the ships.

At a press meet at Hotel Agrabad in the port city on Wednesday, officials of the Bangladeshi ship builders, Western Marine Shipyard, also said that the two ships - MS Grona Ammersum and Grona Biessum - costing Tk 1.6 billion have been carved out of roughly 3,000 metric tonnes of steel.

"The two ships have been built in line with the latest standards of International Maritime Organisation and can travel in adverse situations such as in ice cold weather. They mark Bangladesh's step forward in the ship-building industry," Western Marine's chairman Saiful Islam said.

"We are building ten other similar ships for Gona Shipping."

The construction of the ships, begun in 2009, has taken 1 million work-hours. The ships completed their sea trials on Nov 15, the officials added