LNG

Gaztransport and Technigaz (GTT), the French maritime LNG storage technology company, has received another order from the China Merchants Heavy Industry shipyard in the eastern province of Jiangsu for the tank design of a new LNG carrier as its orders stack up.

Gaztransport and Technigaz (GTT), the French maritime LNG storage technology company, has received a second wave of orders from a Chinese shipyard for tanks for 10 more vessels as part of QatarEnergy’s “Hundred Ships Programme” to handle the deliveries from multiple expansion projects in the Arabian Gulf.

South Korean shipbuilders, the global leaders in the construction of liquefied natural gas carriers, ranked second in 2023 in terms of new global orders for all types of vessels for a third straight year, though increased their share of the LNG newbuilds market.

Dec 8 (LNGJ) - French LNG maritime storage tank designer GTT has signed a “strategic cooperation agreement” with China State Shipbuilding Corp. (CSSC), the leading Chinese shipbuilding group.

   The accord was signed at the Marintec China international trade fair in Shanghai. “The agreement provides for cooperation between GTT and 12 subsidiaries of the CSSC conglomerate, notably in ship design and construction, cryogenic containment technologies for LNG shipping, LNG as fuel and smart shipping1 solutions,” said GTT. Among the CSSC subsidiaries are Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding, the Jiangnan Shipyard, Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co. and Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding.

South Korean shipbuilders are still leading their Chinese counterparts in orders for liquefied natural gas carriers, though China’s yards are well ahead in overall orders for newbuilds even as the shipbuilding market was weaker than in 2022.

Sept 5 (LNG) - The American Bureau of Shipping has issued China’s Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding with an approval in principle for its new liquefied natural gas carrier design with 271,000 cubic metres of cargo tank capacity. The design approval was awarded at the Gastech energy event in Singapore and the Chinese design is seen as suitable for the next generation of vessels being ordered by LNG producer QatarEnergy for expansion projects.

   The design features flexible dual-fuel propulsion and an air lubrication system as well as an enhanced cargo containment system together with a real-time sloshing monitoring system. “As the world’s premier classification society for gas carriers, with more than 50 years of experience, we are proud to support this advanced new design from Hudong-Zhonghua,” said John McDonald, ABS President and Chief Operating Officer.

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.

Gaztransport and Technigaz (GTT), the French LNG storage technology company for shipping and onshore, said the Supreme Court of Korea rejected GTT's appeal on licence and technical assistance deals with South Korean shipyards.

The Paris-based company had appealed against the decision of the Seoul High Court confirming the company's obligation to separate, in whole or in part, the “Technology License and the Technical Assistance” agreements if requested by the South Korean shipyards it has dealings with.

GTT had filed its appeal against the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) decision in December 2022.

“GTT acknowledges this very surprising decision, which comes only three months after the decision of the same Supreme Court of Korea to suspend the effects of the decision of the Seoul High Court,” said GTT.

The French company said it considered that its provision of technical assistance and engineering services “were essential to ensure the safety and performance” of its solutions and that its “unique expertise” was crucial to the safety of LNG maritime transport.

Defending interests

“Convinced of the sound basis of its contractual provisions, GTT is still committed to defending its interests and those of the entire LNG industry, and is considering the most appropriate actions to be taken in order to maintain its rights,” stated the Paris-based company.

“The company does not anticipate any significant financial impact in the short or medium term,” it added.

The KFTC in December 2022 had ordered GTT to allow the Korean shipyards, upon their request, to perform all or part of the technical assistance services currently included in the technology licenses and to pay €9.5 million ($10.40M) as an administrative fine.

The loss of the Korea appeal comes as GTT continues to expand its relationships with Chinese companies and shipyards where it has similar accords and is building the LNG tanks storage technology business.

On the occasion of the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron’s to Beijing on April 6, 2023, PipeChina Engineering Technology Innovation Co. signed a cooperation agreement for the evaluation and further promotion of GTT’s membrane containment tank technology for LNG projects in China.

PipeChina Group is currently operating seven LNG receiving terminals in China and three new LNG import projects are under construction.

As the largest operator of LNG infrastructure in China, PipeChina said it was keen to expand its cooperation with GTT.

Adnan Ezzarhouni, General Manager of GTT China, explained that GTT had already delivered onshore tanks to the Chinese.

These were for a peak-shaving project at Hejian in Hebei province, operated by Huagang Gas, as well as Phase I of the giant Beijing Gas Tianjin-Nangang onshore LNG terminal and the company was seeking additional contracts.

GTT has major collaborations with major Chinese shipyards such as Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corp., and Jiangnan Shipbuilding located northeast of Shanghai on Changxing Island at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

CMA CGM, the French container shipping line based in the Mediterranean port of Marseille and the third-largest in the world and with a growing fleet of LNG-powered vessels, has a new service to the LNG fuel location of Ennore port on the East Coast of India.

The containerships will expand port coverage with a direct call to Ennore, near Chennai in India, on the Westbound leg of the service connecting North Europe and the Mediterranean with Oceania as from June 2023.

“This new call will offer our customers a fast export connection from the main commercial area in South East India to Europe together with a direct import connection from Australia and Singapore,” said CMA CGM.

“Ennore is also a natural gateway from/to the Inland Container Depot of Bangalore covered with efficient rail connectivity,” added the French company.

The other LNG fuel ports in CMA CGM’s so-called NEMO service include Fos Sur Mer near Marseille, La Spezia in Italy, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Malta and Singapore.

French LNG storage tanks designer GTT is supplying the tanks for six more LNG-powered containerships ordered from South Korea by CMA CGM.

The six containerships are being constructed at the Korean shipyard of Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries.

The vessels, each capable of carrying 8,000 containers, will be equipped with an LNG fuel tank with a capacity of 6,000 cubic metres.

The deliveries of the vessels are scheduled from the fourth quarter of 2024 to the fourth quarter of 2025.

CMA CGM is a pioneer of LNG-powered containerships and has about 12 more of the vessels being built in China.

The shipping line has said it is aiming to have a fleet of 44 LNG-fuelled containerships by 2024.

The 12 China-built vessels will be delivered between the last quarter of 2023 and the third quarter of 2024.

The construction contracts for those CMA CGM newbuilds were awarded to Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding and Jiangnan Shipyard Co.

Each of the Chinese yards is building six vessels able to carry between 13,000 and 15,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) of containers.

The first ever LNG-powered containership was delivered to CMA CGM from the Hudong-Zhonghua yard and entered commercial operation in September 2020.

The 23,000 TEU “CMA CGM Jacques Saadé” was named after the late Lebanon-born founder of the shipping line and father of current Chairman Rodolphe Saadé.

South Korean shipyards outperformed their Chinese counterparts in terms of orders for liquefied natural gas carriers during 2022, though finished second to China in overall shipyard orders.