LNG Carrier and Largest Container Ship Delivered

April 3 marked another milestone in the rapid development of Chinese shipbuilding capacity as, at separate ceremonies, two of the nation’s shipbuilders delivered the first LNG carrier to be built in and the largest containership to emerge from a Chinese shipyard. Both of these historic first shipbuilding projects were completed to ABS class standards.

Shanghai-based Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard delivered the 147,000 m3 LNG carrier Dapeng Sun to China LNG Shipping (International) Ltd for service between ’s North West Shelf and ’s first LNG receiving terminal in . It is the first of a five ship series that are being dual classed by ABS and China Classification Society (CCS). Keel laying for the first ship took place in June 2005. Construction is already nearing completion on the second in the series, the Dapeng Moon scheduled for delivery in late-June, with the fifth and final ship expected to be handed over one year later in June 2009.
To assist the yard, ABS assigned a team of surveyors to the project with many years of experience in LNG construction and in particular with the GTT NO96 membrane containment system. “An LNG project is quite different from standard tanker and bulk carrier construction,” Liebertz added. “This was a high profile project that entailed technical and cultural challenges for all of the parties concerned. It is a real credit to everyone that has been involved in this project that it has gone as smoothly as it has and we are very proud of the finished product.”
ABS is currently the only class society with LNG carriers building to its standards in , and . “The first ship converted to carry liquid gas was ABS-classed,” said Liebertz. “The first purpose designed and built LNG carrier was to ABS class. ABS is the only society to have classed LNG carriers with all of the different containment systems that are currently on offer. It is only appropriate that this historic vessel has also been delivered to ABS standards.”
The second milestone occurred at the Nantong COSCO KHI Shipyard (NACKS) with the delivery of the 10,000 TEU Cosco Oceania to COSCO Container Lines. This is the largest containership to have been built in and is the first of a four ship series from the yard.