Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries (ZPMC) has started building what it says is China’s first LNG-powered trailing suction hopper dredger for CCCC Shanghai Dredging.
Both ZPMC and CCCC Shanghai Dredging are part of state-owned China Communications Construction Company (CCCC).
To mark the construction start, ZPMC held a steel-cutting ceremony for the 15,000 cbm dredger on December 26 at the yard of its Qidong offshore engineering unit, it said in a statement.
“The dredger is the first extra-large clean energy-powered trailing suction hopper dredger with completely independent design solutions in China,” the firm said.
The dredger will have length of about 155.7 meters, a beam of 32 meters, a dredging draft of 9.9 meters, and a maximum capacity of 17,000 cubic meters in the hopper, ZPMC said.
This vessel will join a growing fleet of LNG-powered vessels in China and around the globe.
Orders for LNG-powered vessels kept growing this year despite the surge in LNG fuel prices.
Earlier this month, classification society DNV said that owners had placed orders for 203 LNG-powered vessels this year.
LNG-powered container vessels and car carriers constituted nearly two thirds of the orders during this year.