The steel-cutting for the first 85,000m3 very large ethane carrier (VLEC), which was ordered by JHW Engineering & Contracting (JHW), took place in Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Offshore (DSIC Offshore), on 15th of June.
This VLEC will be delivered at the beginning of 2019, to provide midstream services to build a maritime virtual pipeline from US to Asia across the ocean.
The VLEC will be equipped with four cargo tanks, three of which are IMO Type C Star-trilobe tanks, MAN Dual-fuel engines and MAN Alpha Propellers. The carriers are expected to create several “first times” as follows:
- first time to apply the semi refrigerated solution to very large gas carriers;
- first time for a gas carrier with Type C tanks can reach 85,000cbm;
- first time for single Type C tank can reach more than 23,000cbm;
- first time to choose Chinese shipyard to build VLEC.
Mr. Jacques de Chateauvieu, Chairman of JACCAR Group and JHW, Captain Adami Ulrich from Hartmann Group, technical partner of JHW, Mr Liu Zheng, Chairman of DSIC, and Mr Yang Zhizhong, General Manager of DSIC, as well as the representatives from financing leasing institutes, Sinosure, DNV-GL participated in this event. Meanwhile, as the end user, representatives from INEOS, a world-class petrochemical enterprises, as well as Singapore based SP chemicals and Shandong Wanda Group witness the steel-cutting ceremony.
