China’s Yangzijiang Shipbuilding has started building the first LNG-powered containership for Singapore’s Pacific International Lines.
To mark the construction start, Yangzijiang’s Jiangsu New Yangzi held a steel-cutting ceremony on December 19 for the 8000-teu vessel, according to PIL.
PIL said thus is the first of our four LNG dual-fuel containerships that the firm has ordered from Yangzijiang in July last year.
The vessels will feature WinGD dual-fuel engines and GTT’s Mark III membrane system.
Also, the tanks will be ammonia-ready.
This makes it possible to retrofit the vessels to run on ammonia once the technology becomes commercially available, PIL said.
The shipping firm will take delivery of the four ships progressively in 2025.
Besides these vessels, China’s Jiangnan Shipyard is also building four LNG-powered containerships for PIL.
These ships are larger and have a capacity of 14,000 teu.
Jiangnan started building the first LNG-powered ship in this batch in July.
Following delivery in 2024, this vessel will be the first LNG-powered containerships in PIL’s fleet.