Wärtsilä, Samsung Heavy Industries Partner

MarineLink April 4, 2019

The Joint Development Project was signed by Jin-Taek Jung; Executive Vice President, Engineering & Procurement Operations, SHI and Timo Koponen; Vice President, Processing Solutions, Wärtsilä Marine. (Photo: Wärtsilä)

Finland based technology group Wärtsilä and South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) will set out to develop more efficient solutions for liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers and shuttle tanker vessels, under a new joint development project (JDP) agreement signed Wednesday at the LNG19 exhibition in Shanghai.

According to Wärtsilä, who issued a press release announcing the agreement on Thursday, the JDP will build on shared knowledge and experience between the two companies. Overall cost optimization, including both CAPEX and OPEX, is among the project aims, it said.

Wärtsilä said an important driver for the JDP is the strong LNG carrier newbuilding market, as there are potentially dozens of new vessels to be ordered for transporting increasing volumes of LNG from both new and extended export terminals in Africa, Australia, Middle East and the U.S.