Steel Blocks News

A keel-laying ceremony was held earlier this week for Seaway 7’s new offshore wind turbine installation vessel Seaway Ventus.The ceremony was held on Monday, June 6, at the China Merchants Heavy Industry (CMHI) Haimen facility, Nantong.The GustoMSC NG-14000XL-G jack-up vessel was originally ordered by OHT, with which Seaway 7 merged in 2021."This is a very important and satisfying milestone for the Seaway Ventus construction project, marking the period where all the fabricated…

Dubai shipyard Drydocks World said it recently completed its latest conversion project for Dutch dredging and heavy lift company Boskalis.The former drillshipship, now a crane vessel named Bokalift 2, has been converted in preparation for carrying out a variety of offshore operations. Its maiden project will be the transport and installation of wind turbine foundations off the coast of Taiwan.The conversion scope included the fabrication and installation of 9,000 tons of steel blocks on both sides of the vessel to increase the stability of the vessel and the installation of a new work deck.

Helsinki Shipyard said the first steel has been cut for the third vessel in a series of new luxury expedition cruise ships for British cruise line Swan Hellenic.Ordered in October 2020, the new vessel is scheduled to be delivered at the end of 2022. Like its two sister ships already on order, the vessel is designed for the global cruise market, with an emphasis on high-latitude cruises.“The order for the third ship in this series of expedition cruise ships was one of the few cruise ship orders placed in the pandemic situation during 2020, and therefore significant for all of us.

Classification society ABS said it completed a pilot project with U.S. shipbuilder General Dynamics NASSCO that used 3D digital models for class surveys. This project means ABS is able to fully support 3D model integration into engineering and now survey.The pilot saw surveyors use 3D digital models instead of traditional 2D drawings for the simulation of new construction surveys on several steel blocks. 3D Model-Based Class allows a designer or a shipyard to eliminate 2D drawings…

On October 10, 2019 the steel cutting ceremony took place at Jiangsu Jinling Shipyard, Co. Ltd. in Yizheng, China (a subsidiary of the Nanjing Jinling Shipyard) for four oil/deck cargo barges being constructed for the Government of the Northwest Territories in Northern Canada.Steel blocks will be constructed at the Yizheng shipyard and then barged approx. 50 kilometers up the Yangtze River to Nanjing Jinling Shipyard for final assembly. Following steel cutting the construction is expected to take 9 months…

June 20, 2017 began the next construction stage for Hapag-Lloyd Cruises’ first newbuild expedition cruise vessel, HANSEATIC nature. During a keel laying ceremony at the VARD shipyard in Tulcea, Romania, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises CEO, Karl J. Pojer, placed a coin inside the steel block; the coin was welded into the block and will accompany the ship on all its future cruises. HANSEATIC nature‘s keel consists of two steel blocks: each block is 9 meters long, 11 meters wide, 1,5 meters high and weighs 33 tons.

General Dynamic’s NASSCO in San Diego arguably has the most diverse and enviable shipbuilding backlog in the U.S., with its navy and commercial orderbook stretching out for three years. With the yard humming at record pace, we sat down with Kevin Graney, VP & GM in San Diego to discuss how he and his team intend to keep the momentum rolling forward. General Dynamics National Steel & Shipbuilding Co. – NASSCO – has quietly become the face of U.S. shipbuilding, deftly balancing a newbuild and repair workload with the U.S.

On 25 February 2014, approximately nine months after the keel laying of TUI Cruises’ first newbuilding Mein Schiff 3, TUI Cruises and STX Finland celebrated the keel laying of Mein Schiff 4 in the Turku shipyard. Following the old shipbuilding tradition, the lucky coins were placed under the keel block of the ship. In the lucky coin ceremony, held on the bottom of the drydock, the shipowner was represented by Richard J. Vogel, CEO of TUI Cruises, CFO Frank Kuhlmann, Chief Engineer of Mein Schiff 3 Kostas Kallinikos and the designated Captain of Mein Schiff 3 Kjell Holm.

The STX Turku Shipyard in Finland recently lost the order for a third Oasis class cruise ship and an option for a fourth to ”sister” shipyard STX France, when neither the owner, the financially troubled STX Group, nor the Finnish government wanted to inject a missing $64.3m to the capital of the shipyard. The yard is currently building two 97,000gt cruise ships for TUI Cruises. In January the shipyard delivered the world’s first LNG-fuelled big size passenger-car ferry, the Viking Grace for Baltic ferry operator Viking Line.

Over the past 30 years, computer-aided ship design and construction has progressed from mainframe computers to PCs, from independent programs to fully integrated programs, and from large shipyards to all sizes of shipyards. More to the point, key advances during the past several years have made 3-D product modeling a tool that can significantly improve small yard efficiency, quality, and profit. However, 3-D product modeling can do these things only if implemented in a planned and well thought-out manner, tailored to the specific yard. 3-D product modeling, when combined with other innovations such as NC production equipment and the workstation approach to production…

National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO, www.nassco.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics, has joined BP p.l.c. in naming the Alaskan Explorer, the second of four Alaska-class double-hull oil tankers being built for BP Oil Shipping Company, USA. Maureen Hayward, spouse of Tony Hayward, Group Chief Executive of Exploration and Production for BP, was the ship's sponsor, officially naming the Alaskan Explorer and striking a ceremonial bottle of champagne across the ship's hull.

one of the most cost effective yards for building ferries in the industry. The site in Helsinki has become too small to meet the demand for today's ever growing cruise ship sizes, and expansion of the dry dock is not possible, given the location in the yard in the middle of the city of Helsinki. The activity at the yard has been low since the last cruise ship was delivered in February 2004. As Aker Yards however is determined to continue shipbuilding activities in Helsinki, the plan is to focus on the assembly and outfitting of ferries. Two contracts for building of ferries were recently signed with Tallink and Brittany Ferries. The steel blocks have already for some time been floated on barges to Helsinki from the Turku and Rauma units.