South Korea’s medium-sized shipyard K Shipbuilding (formerly STX Offshore & Shipbuilding) recently announced that it signed a construction contract for 4 product tankers in 2 types, including 2 50,000 dwt MR product tankers and 2 75,000 dwt LR product tankers, with two international shipping companies on April 25th.
K Shipbuilding said the new shipbuildings in the series will be equipped with K Smartship solutions that reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions through continuous linear development and improved fuel efficiency of installed equipment, and support safe and efficient operations.
The new product tankers is said to be a liquefied natural gas (LNG) ready vessel that can be converted to use LNG as Marine fuel and will be built in accordance with International Maritime Organization (IMO) environmental standards, complying with EEDI Phase 3 standards.
With the extensive construction experience and competitiveness accumulated in the mid-sized product tanker market, K Shipbuilding has recently been investing in the development of vessels powered by environmentally friendly fuels such as LNG, ammonia and methanol.
K Shipbuilding related personnel said, “The order is an additional order from an existing customer, which proves the company’s competitiveness and credibility in the product tanker market, and the company is confident that it will achieve its $1 billion order target this year, with a number of contracts still under negotiation.”
This is the second order K Shipbuilding has made public this year. Greek shipping company Chemnav Shipmanagement announced earlier this year that an option for a 50,000 dwt MR product tanker had come into force with it, bringing its number of MR product tankers at the yard to three.