China’s Hudong-Zhonghua said that CSSC Shipping’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier, Wen Cheng, has completed its gas trials.
The LNG tanker completed the trials in only five days and returned to the yard on August 11.
With this, Hudong-Zhonghua broke its record for the shortest gas trial voyage of a large-scale LNG vessel.
Prior to this, the LNG carrier completed its sea trials in less then two days, also breaking a record.
The shipbuilder did not say when it expects to deliver the vessel.
This is the third of four LNG carriers CSSC Shipping, the financial leasing unit of China State Shipbuilding Corporation, has on order at Hudong-Zhonghua.
The shipbuilder already built two 174,000-cbm LNG carriers for CSSC Shipping as part of a contract signed in December 2019, while the two firms signed a shipbuilding contract for the third LNG carrier in July 2021.
The fourth vessel is also part of the original 2+1+1 contract signed in 2019.
It follows sister vessels Mu Lan, which serves PetroChina, as well as Gui Ying, which works for trader Gunvor.
Hudong-Zhonghua said in the statement it is currently working on five large LNG carriers at the same time.
The shipbuilder said it is boosting construction speed in order to realize the goal of doubling the production capacity of LNG carriers.
Besides LNG carriers, Hudong-Zhonghua is also building four containerships, including CMA CGM’s 13,000-teu LNG-powered containerships.