South Korea’s Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries has contracted France’s GTT to design tanks for six LNG-powered containerships.
GTT said in a statement on Thursday that the six vessels, both with a capacity of 15,600 containers, would each get 12,800-cbm LNG fuel tanks.
The tanks will feature GTT’s Mark III Flex membrane containment technology.
Also, the delivery of these six vessels would take place throughout 2024, GTT said.
“The shipowner and the charterer, both Europeans, remain anonymous at this stage,” the LNG tank giant said.
In addition to the engineering services and on-site technical assistance, GTT said it would assist the operator through every step of the LNG-fueled project.
This includes commissioning of the LNG tank, first bunkering operations, as well as further specific operations and maintenance of the vessels.
Moreover, GTT will provide training for the crews, supported by its proprietary G-Sim training simulator, which replicates the future LNG operations of the vessels, but it will also offer its HEARS emergency response service with 24/7 technical assistance.
GTT added it would fit these vessels with its “GTT Digital” platform, a “smart shipping” solution to monitor and optimize the operational performance of the vessels and further reduce their energy consumption and environmental footprint.
This order could be related to a contract South Korea’s shipbuilder Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering revealed earlier this month.
KSOE said its unit HSHI would build six 15,000 TEU vessels for a European company for about 1.29 trillion won ($1.08 billion) and deliver them by December 2024.
One shipbuilding source told LNG Prime that Switzerland-based MSC was involved in the order for the six containerships.