On September 3, during the SMM (Shipbuilding, Machinery and Marine Technology) trade fair 2024 in Hamburg, Germany, China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC)’s Guangzhou Shipbuilding International (GSI), together with China Shipbuilding Trading (CSTC), CSSC (Hong Kong) Shipping, and Germany’s Leonhardt & Blumberg (L&B), held a signing ceremony for the construction contract of 49,500 DWT chemical/product oil tankers. Including the two chemical/product oil tankers signed in April, the two parties have signed for four MR tankers.
Mr. Sheng Jigang, Deputy General Manager of CSSC, Mr. Wang Yongliang, Director of Economic Operation Department, and Mr. Wu Aijun, Deputy General Manager of CSTC, attended the ceremony and witnessed the signing of the contract. Torben Kölln, Director of Operations of L&B, Lin Feng, Deputy General Manager of CSTC Trading and Jin Lichao, Deputy General Manager of GSI signed the construction contract on behalf of the three parties, and CSSC (Hong Kong) Shipping signed a financing contract with L&B.
The contracted 49,500 DWT chemical/product oil tanker is a new generation MR tanker developed by GSI, with an overall length of 183 meters, a beam of 32 meters, a structural draught of 13.3 meters, a deadweight of about 49,500 tons and a service speed of 14.5 knots. It reserves the function of methanol dual-fuel drive, equipped with sulfur removal device, the emission standard meets the TIER Ⅲ standard of the International Maritime Organization, and the EEDI reaches the third phase requirement.
This tanker is characterized by fast speed, light empty weight, low energy consumption and strong adaptability, and has reached the world’s forefront level of the same type of ship in terms of energy consumption index, environmental protection performance and reliability requirements.
According to the official website, with more than 120 years of experience in shipping, Leonhardt & Blumberg steers a fleet of 30 handy sized container ships and five product tankers. The company belongs to the leading companies offering container ships from 1,000 to 3,600 TEU. Since 2022, it also invested in the promising segment of product tankers (50,000 tdw).