NASSCO Lays Keel of First Product Carrier

General Dynamics NASSCO held a keel-laying ceremony for the first ship of its new class of product carriers (PC-1). The ship is being built for U.S. Shipping Partners and is scheduled to be delivered in early 2009. The PC-1 class ship will be 600 feet long, displace about 49,000 deadweight tons and have a cargo capacity of 331,000 barrels. The ship is based on a design of DSEC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering of Okpo, Korea. Through its April 2006 agreement with DSEC, NASSCO has received detail designs and some components necessary to build the ship. NASSCO began construction of the ship in August. U.S. Shipping Partners previously announced that the ship will be named Golden State, the state nickname of California.