LNG

July 12 (LNGJ) - GTT, the French designer of membrane storage tanks, said it would provide maritime storage for two LNG carriers ordered from the Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company  (DISC) yard in Liaoning province of northeast China.

   GTT said the DSIC yard had ordered the tanks for two vessels ordered by China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES). The ships will each have capacity of 175,000 cubic metres. “They will be fitted with the Mark III Flex membrane containment system,” said GTT. “The delivery of the vessels is scheduled between the fourth quarter of 2026 and the first quarter of 2027,” added the Paris-based company.

European maritime classification society DNV has established a Future Ship Joint Innovation Centre in Shanghai in partnership with China State Shipbuilding Corp. (CSSC), the world’s leading shipbuilding group.

DNV and CSSC said the facility would allow both companies to cooperate on ship and offshore field technical innovation and to advance digitalization while providing technical support and general solutions for the maritime industry.

The new Innovation Centre was formally opened by CSSC Vice President Sheng Jigang and DNV Maritime Chief Executive Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen.

The CSSC yards include China’s leading LNG carrier builder Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding of Shanghai.

Its current orders include building six LNG carriers for a partnership including Japanese shipping company Mitsui OSK Lines and China’s Cosco Shipping to be delivered in 2025.

DNV joint operator

DNV will operate the Innovation Centre with the Shanghai Merchant Ship Design and Research Institute (SDARI) and the cooperation accord was signed by SDARI’s President Lv Zhiyong and DNV’s Senior Vice President and Regional Manager Norbert Kray.

The Centre will set up three joint work groups on reducing carbon-dioxide and promoting digital and smart shipping.

“The establishment of this Centre is an important step for a deepened strategic cooperation between CSSC and DNV, China and Europe,” stated CSSC VP Sheng.

“Additionally, the mutual trust and advantages gained will pave the way for an in-depth technical exchange between SDARI and DNV China, accelerating research on green and intelligent shipping technology towards a global maritime transformation,” Sheng added.

DNV Maritime’s CEO Ørbeck-Nilssen said it was a great honour cooperate with CSSC and SDARI to establish the Centre.

Support

“DNV will support the Centre with its full global expertise. Together we will work to ensure it will become a model for the maritime industry’s proactive response to decarbonization and digital transformation,” Ørbeck-Nilssen declared.

Others who attended the ceremony included CSSC’s Assistant President and Director General of Technology Division Xu Miao, SDARI’s Vice President Li Lu and DNV’s Senior Vice President and Reginal Strategic Business Development Director James Huang,.

Also in attendance were DNV's Vice President and Regional Customer Relations Director Hou Juzhen, Vice President and Head of Technical Centre China Øyvind Pettersen and members from the new Centre and its working groups.

Ascenz Marorka, a subsidiary of French storage tanks technology company GTT, has been awarded two contracts by the Chinese natural gas and LNG player, the JOVO Group, to provide two LNG carriers with smart-shipping equipment.

JOVO is based in Guangdong province of southern China where it is one of the main suppliers of LNG and other fuels in the Pearl River Delta area.

The Chinese company is involved in LNG importing, trading and the city-gas business as well as pipeline gas deliveries and natural gas filling stations for vehicles.

GTT smart-shipping unit Ascenz Marorka has emerged from the joint branding of Singapore-based Ascenz and Icelandic firm Marorka, which was acquired by GTT.

These contracts for JOVO’s two LNG carriers cover the installation of automatic data collection systems and software for managing and optimising the energy and environmental performance of the ships.

Voyage management

“Crew on board and personnel ashore will benefit from a comprehensive set of modules such as voyage management, LNG cargo optimisation, machinery optimisation, trim optimisation and fuel monitoring,” said GTT.

“In addition, JOVO will also benefit from exclusive LNG features developed through GTT’s unique expertise such as LNG cargo monitoring, boil-off gas management and heel optimisation,” stated the Paris-based parent company.

“We are honoured by the trust that JOVO places in us to support them on their journey towards digitalisation, operational optimisation and effective decarbonisation,” said Anouar Kiassi, Vice-President of Digital and Information at GTT.

“We are delighted to work hand in hand with a shipowner committed to operational and environmental excellence,” stated Kiassi.

Lu Yuan, Managing Director of LNG International Business for the JOVO Group, said the company was delighted to extend its cooperation with GTT and Ascenz Marorka.

“The deployment of these innovative and unique solutions and services on board our LNG carriers will enable us to better operate our vessels, unload larger volumes of LNG cargoes, improve general safety, assist crews in their demanding tasks and achieve our environmental goals,” Lu declared.

Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, the Japanese shipping company known as NYK Line which has a US LNG investment and a fleet of 660 vessels from tankers to containerships and car carriers, has signed six long-term charters for LNG carriers with China National Offshore Oil Corp.

COSCO Shipping Energy Transportation of China has ordered three liquefied natural gas newbuilds from Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding of Shanghai to take its future fleet numbers up to 44 LNG vessels.

COSCO gave details in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange of the payments plans for the vessels and delivery dates.

The company said that the combined price of the three vessels would be $554 million.

“The board is pleased to announce that on 7 December 2021, ‘United Auspicious LNG’, ‘United Peace LNG’ and ‘United Success LNG’ (each being a wholly-owned subsidiary of United Liquefied Gas Shipping, an indirect non-wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company) entered into the shipbuilding contracts with Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding and China Shipbuilding Trading,” added the statement.

The indirect non-wholly owned subsidiary of COSCO, United Liquefied Gas Shipping, is owned 81 percent by the company and the 19 percent balance is held by PetroChina International.

Growing fleet

COSCO currently has an LNG fleet of 41 LNG carriers in total, of which 38 are in operation with a shipping capacity of 6.42 million cubic metres.

COSCO noted that its LNG shipping projects involved two subsidiaries, COSCO Shipping LNG Investment (Shanghai), a wholly-owned subsidiary, and China LNG Shipping (Holdings) of which COSCO has a 50 percent stake.

The newbuilds just ordered each have capacity of not less than 174,000 cubic metres and guaranteed deadweight of 80,000 metric tons at design draught each.

“Pursuant to the shipbuilding contracts, the consideration for each of the vessels is approximately US$185 million,” said COSCO.

“The price of each of the vessels is payable in four instalments of 10 percent, 10 percent, 10 percent and 70 percent, respectively based on the shipbuilding progress,” added the company.

COSCO said that the fourth instalment of 70 percent could be adjusted to take account of certain issues such late delivery and performance deficiencies of the vessels.

The company said the cost of the three newbuilds would be funded by the group with 80 percent bank borrowings and around 20 percent from financial resources.

“The delivery of the three vessels is expected to take place on a date no later than 30 September 2024, 31 December 2024 and 31 March 2025, respectively,” the statement concluded. 

Cosco Shipping Energy Transportation Co., China’s largest LNG shipping business and the world’s biggest operator of oil tankers, has outlined its future strategy and its fleet management efforts.

That’s as Cosco reported total annual revenues from operations of 13.72 billion Chinese yuan ($1.92Bln), a year-on-year increase of 13.4 percent.

Its gross profit (EBITDA) was reported as 5.29Bln yuan ($747.4M), representing an increase of 36.3 percent from the previous year.

Cosco’s latest earnings and strategy emerged in its annual report just released by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The group’s LNG subsidiaries include Cosco Shipping LNG Investment (Shanghai) Co., a wholly-owned by the group, and China LNG Shipping (CLNG), in which the group holds a 50 percent stake.

The two are the only large-scale LNG shipping companies in China and have a combined fleet of 38 carriers with aggregate capacity of 5,900,000 cubic metres.

Three other LNG vessels under construction with aggregate capacity of 522,000 cubic metres.

Cosco posted LNG shipping revenue of 1.32 billion Chinese yuan ($186.5M), an increase of 11.9 percent compared with 2018 as its fleet slowly grows.
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The Shanghai-based company said that it planned to expand over time in the LNG sector, given the increasing global needs for cleaner fuel.

“The group has recognized the transportation of clean energy as the second development curve, and will seize market opportunities, give full play to competitive advantages and promote the development of potential LNG shipping projects,” it stated.

The company said it was working to improve its existing LNG fleet management system and the LNG vessels were becoming more competitive.

“Shanghai LNG, a subsidiary of the Group, passed the certification of Lloyd’s Shipping Register and obtained the first certificate for quality, health, safety and environment (QHSE) management system in China’s LNG shipping industry,” said Cosco.

“The accomplishment of the authoritative certification for the management system strengthened the Group’s position as a leader in China’s LNG shipping business,” it added.

Cosco said its overall transportation turnover for all vessels (excluding time charters) was 440.78 billion ton-nautical miles, a decrease of 19.2 percent year-on-year.

In terms of its oil fleet size, Cosco says it is the world’s largest tanker owner with a fleet of 151 crude tankers owned and controlled with a total capacity of 21.71 million dead weight tonnage (DWT).

The crude tanker fleet includes 142 self-owned vessels with a capacity of 19.25 million DWT, nine chartered-in tankers with a capacity of 2.46 million DWT and 17 new oil tankers on order with a capacity of 3.04 million DWT.

Cosco actively responded to the 2020 global sulfur limit overseen th by International Maritime Organization and will help promote the sustainable development of the industry.

Currently, all oil tankers of the group use low-sulfur fuel to meet the sulfur limit.

In addition, Cosco cooperated with Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co. to develop the world’s first LNG dual-fuel Very Large Crude Carrier in compliance with phase III of the ship energy efficiency design index.

“With the international oil shipping market rebound in 2019, the group actively sought cargoes and reasonably raised voyage speeds, which caused a 11.7 percent year-on-year increase on unit bunker fuel consumption,” it explained.

“The company applied an efficiency optimization model in managing the voyage speeds and achieved the savings of 112.2 thousand tons of bunker fuels,” it noted.

During the reporting period, Cosco’s vessels in drydock increased by over 60 percent year-on-year.

This was due to the aging of vessels and the sulfur cap and spare parts replacement.

“Facing the rising demand for drydocking, the group actively communicated with shipyards to strictly control the non-operating period in arranging dry-docking schedules, which saved over 100 days and improved the fleet operating efficiency,” said Cosco.