French LNG containment giant GTT has signed a technical assistance and license agreement with China Merchants Heavy Industries in Jiangsu (CMHI Jiangsu), enabling the yard to construct vessels using GTT membrane technologies.
CMHI Jiangsu is a unit of China Merchants Industry Holdings, one of the three leading shipbuilding groups in China.
GTT and China Merchant Industry have been cooperating for a decade, GTT said in a statement.
They signed the first technical service agreement in 2013 for the maintenance and repair of LNG carriers.
Also, the two firms initiated a cooperation agreement back in 2016 for the evaluation of CMHI to implement GTT technologies.
This license deal marks a new stage in the partnership between the duo as the shipyard can now build large LNG carriers.
CMHI Jiangsu began the licensing process earlier this year. It successfully obtained it at the mock-up completion ceremony held on October 10, according to GTT.
GTT recently also signed a similar deal with China’s largest private shipyard, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding.
The French company’s boss Philippe Berterottière welcomed the new agreement with China Merchants Heavy.
“We expect the new stage of this partnership to be a real success both in the LNG carrier construction and in the LNG-fueled market,” he said.
Simple Hu, general manager of China Merchants Industry, said, “we are already acquainted with GTT’s technologies and we are determined to consolidate our shipbuilding experience with these technologies for large LNG carrier, FSU, FSRU, FLNG, VLEC, as well as LNG-fueled merchant vessels.”
“We aim to further deepen our collaboration with GTT with our other shipyards as well,” he said.