China’s Hudong-Zhonghua has started building the fourth LNG carrier for CSSC Shipping, the financial leasing unit of China State Shipbuilding Corporation.
To mark the construction start, the state-owned yard held a steel-cutting ceremony on June 21 for the 174,000-cbm LNG carrier with a working name H1830A, it said in a statement.
Part of Hudong’s fourth-generation Changxing series, the 295 meters long LNG carrier will feature WinGD’s X-DF dual-fuel engines and GTT’s NO96 L03+ containment system.
Hudong-Zhonghua expects to deliver this vessel in 2024.
As previously reported by LNG Prime, CSSC Shipping and Hudong-Zhonghua signed the shipbuilding contract for this vessel on January 6.
The CSSC-controlled shipbuilder has already built two 174,000-cbm LNG carriers for CSSC Shipping as part of a contract signed in December 2019. The two firms also signed a shipbuilding contract for the third LNG carrier in July last year.
This fourth vessel is a part of the original 2+1+1 contract signed in 2019.
It follows sister vessels Mu Lan, which serves PetroChina, and Gui Ying, which works for trader Gunvor.
Hudong started building the third vessel in December as well and should deliver it in 2024.