China Cosco Shipping has placed an order at CSSC-affiliated Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding for the construction of three 174,000 cu m LNG carriers.
The vessels will adopt Hudong Zhonghua’s “Chang Xing” LNG carrier design and are expected to be delivered in 2022. The total value of the contract is RMB3.9bn ($552m), and the vessels will be used for a LNG shipping project with PetroChina.
Liu Hanbo, managing director of Cosco Shipping Energy Transportation, said the construction of the new LNG carriers is a response to the government’s call to expand domestic demand.
The three new vessels will expand Cosco’s LNG carrier fleet to 41 vessels with total capacity of 6.94m cu m.
In April, Hudong Zhonghua secured a $19bn contract from Qatar Petroleum to build up to 16 LNG carriers.
