Stx Engine News

MAN Energy Solutions said it recently conducted a successful Type Approval Test (TAT) for new engine L23/30H Mk3 executed on-site in Korea by STX and MAN Energy Solutions staff, with the classification team joining proceedings remotely due to COVID-19 restrictions. "TATs are an important step in the entry of every engine to the market," siad Finn Fjeldhøj, Head of Small-Bore, Four-Stroke Engineering, MAN Energy Solutions. "The fact that we could surmount the difficulties posed by the global pandemic with a remote solution to successfully get the engine approved is very pleasing.

STX Engine set to build first Mk3 variants of MAN workhorseSTX Engine signed a contract with Daehan shipbuilding for 3 × MAN 6L23/30H Mk3 GenSets for 1+1 vessels, which marks the first sale of the engine’s Mk3 version. The engines are bound for an Aframax crude tanker ordered by Atlas Maritime, the Greek international shipping company, and will achieve Tier III emission levels with the aid of SCR. They are provisionally scheduled for delivery in August 2021.“This is an important order…

MAN Diesel & Turbo has won the order from MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company for 11 × 23,000 TEU container vessels equipped with 11 × MAN B&W 11G95ME-C9.5 main engines. Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) will construct six of the vessels while Daewoo Shipping Marine Engineering (DSME) will construct the remainder. Bjarne Foldager, Vice President – Sales & Promotion, Two-Stroke Business – MAN Diesel & Turbo, said: “This order underlines the positive, long-term business relationship between MSC and MAN Diesel & Turbo. The ‘G’ prefix before an MAN B&W engine means it has a design with an ultra-long stroke that reduces engine speed, thereby paving the way for ship designs with unprecedented high-efficiency. G-type engines’ longer stroke results in a lower rpm for the engine driving the propeller.

Aiming to boost its operations in the Asia-Pacific territory, control instrumentation and electrical engineering specialist CMR Group has invested in a new Korea office. CMR Group Korea has opened in Busan under managing director Brian Kim who will be leading the company’s operation there. According to the company, the initial focus will be on new business development as CMR returns to the domestic market, looking after sales and marketing for the group’s range of products for the marine, engine and nuclear business sector.

Troubled South Korea shipbuilder STX Heavy Industries Co. issued a guarantee on a loan defaulted on by its Chinese heavy machinery manufacturer, STX Dalian Heavy Industries Co., from China's Bank of Communications and has been ordered to repay the loan, reports Yonhap. Unlisted STX Dalian Heavy Industries is a wholly owned subsidiary of STX Heavy Industries and has been ordered to repay the 60.9 billion won (US$56.8 million) loan by the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission after the Chinese unit failed to service the principle and interest.

STX Pan Ocean Co., the country's leading bulk carrier, said that CEO Kang Duck-soo (who is also chairman of the STX Group) has resigned as the shipper has been under court receivership since June amid a deepening liquidity crisis, reports Yonhap. The cash-strapped STX Group, South Korea's 13th biggest conglomerate, has seen its major affiliates struggling from liquidity shortages and mounting debt due to the downturn in the shipbuilding and shipping sectors. Creditors have pumped liquidity into ailing STX Group in return for overhaul efforts. STX Group's holding company STX Corp. and its three ailing units -- STX Offshore & Shipbuilding, STX Heavy Industries and STX Engine -- have requested that creditor banks supply liquidity.

South Korean shares rebounded Tuesday from the prior session's fall as local institutions rushed to hunt for bargains on views that the recent decline was excessive. STX Group shares benefit from the rebound. STX group shares ended bullish on news that its shipbuilding unit was assessed to have higher value of business continuation than liquidation value, reports Xinhua. The holding company STX Corp. surged at the daily permissible limit of 15 percent, and STX Heavy Industries and STX Engine jumped 9.4 percent and 13.3 percent each. The shipping unit STX Pan Ocean, which filed for court receivership, tumbled 14.8 percent. Source: Xinhua

Korea-based conglomorate STX saw tough times the past year due to severe cash shortage, but is seeking a turnaround in 2013 after offloading some assests. Market analysts have mixed views for STX. Some say that its bold move will help the conglomerate get back on track, while others counter that it will continue struggling to stay afloat due to the unfavorable business environment, reports 'The Korea Times'. The corporation has raised 1.12 trillion in cash by selling its stakes in European affiliate  STX OSV  to Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri SpA for 768 billion won and STX Energy to Japan’s Orix for 360 billion won. The group also plans to sell its stake in STX Pan Ocean, the nation's leading bulk carrier.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) and STX Metal Co., Ltd., a marine diesel engine manufacturer in Korea, have signed an agreement under which MHI will license production and marketing of its MET Turbocharger*, a supercharger for marine diesel engines, to the Korean firm. By establishing a collaborative relationship with STX Metal, MHI aims for further market penetration of the MET Turbocharger in Korea, the world leader in marine diesel engine production. STX Metal is expected to complete production of the first unit of the MET Turbocharger in 2012.

Construcciones Navales del Norte (La Naval de Sestao) of Spain’s Basque country delivered the Simon Stevin to Jan de Nul in February. Driven by a diesel-electric propulsion system comprising a series of MAN Diesel 32/40 engines, the new addition to the Belgian group’s fleet is claimed to be the world’s largest fall-pipe and rock-dumping vessel with a capacity of 19,500 m3. Construction of the ship lasted 26 months, with keel-laying taking place in April 2008 and launching in March 2009. The Simon Stevin recently departed for Australia for its first commercial projects. The Simon Stevin is powered by five MAN Diesel nine-cylinder 32/40 main engines. Each delivers 4,500 kW at 720 rpm and is manufactured by STX Engine Co., Ltd., MAN Diesel’s Korean licensee.

Relative to the huge MAN B&W ship engines manufactured at the STX Engine Company factory on the southern coast of South Korea, their emergency generators are small in size. But in the event of a crisis on a deep-sea container, bulker or tank ship, they can literally be lifesavers. This is, of course, the reason that the IMO has mandated their installation in the upper decks of all new ships. On the first of February this year, STX Engines was shipping a Cummins KTA19-D(M)-powered emergency generator set.

MAN Diesel has announced a series of significant orders for its two-stroke, electronic ME-engines in Brazil. The new engines will be delivered to Petrobras and Vale. Petrobras Brazil’s multinational energy company, has ordered 10 × 6S70ME-C engines to power a new generation of Suezmax tankers as part of a massive fleet-renewal programme. The Petrobras engines will be constructed by Doosan Engine in Korea with the ships being built at the new Estaleiro Atlântico Sul (EAS) shipyard.

The Tognum business unit Engines received two orders for the supply of a total of 28 MTU engines from the Series 2000, Series 4000 and Series 1163 to the Korean Coast Guard in 2009. The orders also include MTU automation systems for six new vessels. The total order value is $55.6m. The engines and automation systems will be installed in new patrol boats with displacements of 300, 500, 1000 and 3000 tons. Contractual partners are the Korean companies STX Engine Co., Ltd, who manufactures the MTU engines under licence, and the MTU distributor, Meksan Engineering Co. Ltd who packages the automation systems with consoles. The new ships will be built by the Korean ship yards Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd (HHI) and Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Co. Ltd.

L-3 Offshore of Coventry, UK, has signed a teaming agreement with STX Engine, the subsidiary of South Korea’s STX Group, under which the two organizations are to collaborate in the marketing and supply of integrated power, electric propulsion, dynamic positioning and automation systems for the Korean offshore market as well as other STX Group concerns. The agreement, recently signed in Seoul by Dong-Hak Chung, President and CEO of STX Engine and Klaus Lorenz, Vice-President European Operations of L-3’s Marine & Power Systems Group…

STX Shipbuilding Co., the first South Korean yard in China, had its biggest two-day gain in more than a week in Seoul on optimism the purchase of a stake in Norway's Aker Yards ASA will add cruise liners to its range of vessels. STX Shipbuilding has more than quadrupled this year, making it the fourth-best performer in South Korea's Kospi 200 index. The stake purchase in Aker Yards will allow STX Shipbuilding to use the Norwegian company's expertise in cruise liners, which are usually more profitable to build than STX Shipbuilding's main business of mid-sized oil tankers and commodity carriers. STX Shipbuilding and STX Engine Co. said they paid $800m for a 39.2 percent stake in Aker Yards, becoming the biggest shareholders in the company.

STX Group said its affiliate STX Shipbuilding Co. has won orders valued at $4.7b in the first half of the year, compared with $1.7ba year earlier. The shipbuilding orders it has received so far are roughly 85 per cent of its annual target of $5.5 billion, it said. In June alone, STX Shipbuilding, the world's seventh-largest shipbuilder, clinched orders valued at $1.1 billion. STX Group has four major subsidiaries -- STX PanOcean Co., STX Shipbuilding Co., STX Engine Co. and STX Energy Co. The group is building another shipyard in China to lower costs and increase capacity to meet rising demand for vessels. The Chinese shipyard is expected to post $3b in sales in 2012, similar to that of its shipyard in Jinhae, South Korea. Source: Asia Pulse

The MAN B&W Diesel Group has extended their existing, over 20-year license agreement with Korean licensee STX Engine. Within Korea, STX is now also licensed to build the new MAN B&W Diesel dual-fuel engine: the 51/60DF. The 51/60DF engine model is particularly suitable as propulsion for LNG (liquid natural gas) tankers. The Korean group STX, which has been a licence partner of the MAN B&W Diesel Group since 1984, is involved in the LNG sector with its own shipping company STX PanOcean and builds its own LNG tankers in the STX Shipyard. New propulsion concepts for this type of carrier are planning with dual-fuel engines, for which STX is bringing their own competence into the company with the new license agreement.