On April 8, a wharf project of Jiangnan Shipbuilding, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), to ensure construction capacity for LNG carriers, was successfully passed the handover and acceptance, which will enhance the comprehensive competitiveness of Jiangnan Shipbuilding’s batch construction of large-scale LNG carriers and meeting the needs of new-type ship fueling and tank testing.
According to the announcement disclosed by China CSSC Holdings Limited on April 28, 2023, the total investment of the wharf project of Jiangnan Shipbuilding’s large-scale LNG carrier construction capacity guarantee project is RMB 484 million. The project obtained preliminary design approval from China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) in February 2023, and on August 10, 2023, the project officially started.
The project is designed by CSSC Ninth Design & Research Institute(CSSC NDRI), also a subsidiary of CSSC. The project is located in the third area of Jiangnan Shipbuilding production, with a total length of 410 meters and a width of 25 meters. There are 2 gantry crane rails on the wharf surface. Upstream and downstream of the wharf are each set up 1 drawbridge connected with the land area. The wharf is equipped with 50-ton gantry crane, boarding tower, water, electricity and power supply facilities.
In terms of equipment and facilities, new automated three-dimensional warehouse, special welding machine, hot platen system, gluing machine, gluing machine, forklift and other process equipment. In terms of software, new liquid cargo containment system verification equipment systems are added, such as liquid cargo system process simulation software, liquid cargo system research and development platform, liquid cargo simulator etc.
It is worth mentioning that the new wharf also takes into account the fuel refueling of new dual-fuel vessels such as 15,000 TEU dual-fuel-powered container ships and the gas used for liquid tanks tests o liquefied gas carriers such as 93,000 cubic metre VLGCs.
In recent years, Jiangnan Shipbuilding has successively undertaken orders for a large number of ultra-large dual-fuel-powered containerships, VLGCs and other vessels, which need to be refueled with a certain amount of LNG, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and other gases according to the requirements of the shipowners before delivery to the shipyard for power debugging, liquid tank test etc.