On March 24, China Shipbuilding Changxing Shipbuilding Base of Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) Co., Ltd., presented four 174,000 m3 large-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers being built in parallel for the first time. The scene of four LNG carriers under construction at the same time will not only become normal, but also marks that Hudong-Zhonghua’s LNG carrier construction has begun the mode of “acceleration”, and the strategy of capacity multiplication has entered a new stage.
One of the two LNG carriers, which left the dock together, is a fifth-generation LNG carrier designed by Hudong-Zhonghua in accordance with the world’s latest design concepts, with an overall length of 299 meters, a beam of 46.4 meters and a depth of 26.25 meters.
The LNG carrier adopts the latest generation of double stern-fin line type and is equipped with a number of low-carbon and energy-saving technologies, which can reduce carbon emission by more than 10 tons in a single day voyage compared with the previous generation of LNG carriers, and has a higher cargo tank loading rate, which can load an additional 800 m3 of LNG per voyage.
It can efficiently meet the various operational requirements of diversified routes and reach 120 LNG terminals on all continents, with excellent global versatility. It is reported that this ship type immediately aroused the market’s warm respect and orders came in droves. Up to now, Hudong-Zhonghua holds orders for more than 30 LNG carriers of this ship type, with a cumulative order of more than 50 LNG carriers, and the delivery period has been arranged until 2028, which makes Hudong-Zhonghua rank among the first in the world in the construction of large LNG carriers.
The year 2024 is the key year for Hudong-Zhonghua to implement the strategy of doubling the construction capacity of LNG carriers. At present, the number of LNG carriers under construction has reached 16, and Hudong-Zhonghua plans to complete 8 LNG carriers in the whole year, striving to set a new record for the annual completion and delivery of LNG carriers in China.
