China Merchants Jinling Shipyard is moving forward with the construction of the first out of two LNG and LBG-powered product tankers for Sweden’s Terntank.
The yard, previously known as AVIC Dingheng Shipbuilding, held a keel-laying ceremony for the hybrid tanker with a working name AD0077 on January 25, according to Terntank.
The Swedish owner has two sister vessels on order at Jinling and they will both serve Finland’s NEOT in the Baltic Sea region as part of a charter deal revealed last year.
With these vessels, the Finnish oil and bioproducts supplier will have four Tertank-chartered LNG-powered tankers in its fleet.
Moreover, the two hybrid newbuilds are an upgraded version of Terntank’s AVIC series.
Kongsberg’s Rolls-Royce Commercial Marine designed the two ships in collaboration with Terntank.
In addition to dual-fuel engines, the 15,000-dwt newbuildings will have a hybrid battery system.
The vessels will also feature shore power connections that will help eliminate port emissions from the auxiliary machines.
To remind, Jinling held a steel-cutting ceremony for both of the vessels in June last year.
Ternatnk expects the first vessel, AD0077, to join its fleet in November 2021 followed by the second, AD0078, in February 2022.