LNG

MAN Energy Solutions, the Denmark-based subsidiary of the German engine-maker MAN SE, has received a propulsion package order to power the world’s largest car carriers being built in China.

The MAN head office, which is in Augsburg, Germany as part of the Volkswagen Group, is best known in the LNG sector for its speciality power package in the electronically-controlled, gas-injection (MEGI) engine for LNG carriers and other vessels.

The Denmark-based unit MAN Energy Solutions said that the Chinese shipyard, Guangzhou Shipbuilding International (GSI), has received an order for four MAN B&W 8S60 ME-GI engines.

The dual-fuel propulsion will be fitted on four 10,800 car equivalent units (CEU) Pure Car and Truck Carriers (PCTCs) for a leading South Korean shipowner, Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) Co. Ltd.

Engine builders

MAN Energy Solutions said a Chinese company, CSIC Diesel Engine Co. Ltd (CSE), will build the Mk10.5 dual-fuel -GI (-Gas Injection) engines in China, which will feature Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) emissions-reduction technology for Tier III NOx compliance.

Upon delivery, the PCTCs will go out on charter to Hyundai Glovis Co., Ltd., the logistics company headquartered in Seoul, South Korea and part of the Hyundai Kia Automotive Group.

MAN Energy Solutions will also provide the three MAN 8L28/32DF (Dual-Fuel) GenSets aboard each vessel with CSSC Marine Power Zhenjian Ltd. (CMP) set to build these, also in China.

“The car carrier market is currently thriving and demand for new tonnage is at an all-time high,” said Thomas S. Hansen, a senior executive at MAN Energy Solutions.

“Most of these newbuilds are with dual-fuel engines, on account of new emission regulations, with LNG leading the way as most popular alternative fuel. That said, our main engines here will also be delivered as both methanol-ready and ammonia-ready,” Hansen added.

“Accordingly, the ME-GI engine remains the most prominent dual-fuel engine in the market with more than 700 orders,” he stated.

Cleaner shipping

“It is the world’s most efficient, methane-fuelled engine and has extremely low levels of methane slip, which make it the industry’s leading dual-fuel engine across vessel types such as container vessels, bulk carriers, tankers as well as car carriers,” Hansen declared.

Bjarne Foldager, Country Manager, Denmark for MAN Energy Solutions, said he was delighted to secure the order for the South Korean China-builds as this underscored his company’s ability to deliver comprehensive propulsion solutions for PCTC projects.

“This achievement sets the stage for establishing a market standard in next-generation PCTC vessels, integrating our trusted and proven engines,” explained Foldager.

“Winning contracts for both main and auxiliary engines aligns with our strategic goal of providing complete propulsion packages. Congratulations to HMM for their bold commitment to decarbonisation,” Foldager stated.

Kosmos Energy, the shareholder along with UK major BP in the floating LNG export project offshore Senegal and Mauritania, said the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit for the venture had broken free from the quayside during a typhoon at the Chinese shipyard where it had just been completed.

Gaztransport and Technigaz (GTT), the French designer of LNG storage tanks for ships and for onshore, has chosen the Gastech Conference in Milan to launch a new corporate image and logo to reflect its clean-fuel role and broadening activities in storage and smart shipping.

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.

French maritime storage technology company GTT has been chosen to design the fuel tanks of 12 new liquefied natural gas-powered container vessels ordered from China by the global CMA CGM shipping group based in the French port of Marseille.

Gaztransport and Technigaz (GTT), the Paris-based technology firm for designs of systems for the maritime transportation and storage of liquefied natural gas, has hired French high-flier Eric Dehouck for the newly-created post of Deputy Chief Executive.