China’s largest private shipyard, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, has secured a large order to build twelve LNG-powered containerships.
According to a statement by Yangzijiang on Thursday, the LNG dual-fuel containerships would have a capacity of 16,000 units.
The shipbuilder did not reveal any further information regarding the containerships.
Shipbuilding sources told LNG Prime that Switzerland-based shipping giant MSC is behind this order.
MSC is expected to start taking deliveries of the vessels in 2025.
One source said that the ships would have a similar design to the six 16,000 TEU LNG-powered container vessels, each worth about $180 million, MSC ordered at China’s DSIC in January this year.
The main difference is that these new vessels would be powered by MAN ME-GI engines instead of WinGD engines.
Also, the MARIC-designed vessels would have type B tanks, according to the source.
Earlier this year, Yangzijiang delivered the first LNG dual-fuel containership in MSC’s fleet, and the second one as well.
MSC is building a huge fleet of LNG-powered vessels in order to slash emissions and to comply with new IMO rules.
Record number of orders
Besides these 12 LNG-fueled containerships, Yangzijiang also won orders for six 66,000-dwt and four 32,000-dwt bulk carriers.
The entire order has a price tag of about $2.5 billion.
With these latest order wins, the group has year-to-date secured new orders for 40 vessels worth about $3.6 billion, exceeding its FY2022 target of $2 billion.
It also achieved the highest ever total orderbook value of $10.27 billion.
“Here at Yangzijiang, we are committed to building greener vessels. Further to the GTT knowhow, we are witnessing a strong market sentiment in this space,” Ren Letian, executive chairman and CEO of the group, said in the statement.
“While we are working even harder to secure our maiden type C LNG carrier, we are also looking to invest in a new production line to meet the strong demand and the market needs in the long term,” Letian said.
French LNG containment giant GTT recently signed a technical assistance and license agreement with Yangzijiang, enabling the yard to construct vessels using GTT membrane technologies.
Yangzijiang has already secured an order for four 8,000 TEU dual-fueled container vessels from Singapore’s Pacific International Lines.
The vessels feature GTT’s membrane technology for the LNG fuel tanks.
