French LNG containment specialist GTT has signed a Technical Assistance and License Agreement with China Merchants Heavy Industries-Jiangsu (CMHI-Jiangsu), a subsidiary of China Merchants Industry Holdings (CMI), enabling the yard to construct vessels using GTT membrane technologies.
GTT and China Merchant Industry Holdings have been cooperating for a decade, with a first Technical Service Agreement signed in 2013 for the maintenance and repair of liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers.
With this new agreement, the shipyard is now licensed for the construction of large capacity LNG carriers.
CMHI-Jiangsu began the licensing process earlier this year and successfully obtained it at the mock-up completion ceremony held on 10 October.
“We are honoured to carry on our collaboration with China Merchants Heavy Industries, one of the largest shipyards in China,” said Philippe Berterottière, Chairman and CEO of GTT.
“We expect the new stage of this partnership to be a real success both in the LNG carrier construction and in the LNG fuelled market as the shipyard is renowned for its variety of vessels constructions.”
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“We are delighted with the collaboration and the trust that the GTT Group has placed in us,” added Simple Hu, General Manager of China Merchants Industry Holdings (CMI).
“We are already acquainted with GTT’s technologies and we are determined to consolidate our shipbuilding experience with these technologies for large LNG carrier, Floating Storage Unit, Floating Storage and Regasification Unit, Floating Liquefied Naturel Gas, Very Large Ethane Carrier, as well as LNG fuelled merchant vessels.
“We aim to further deepen our collaboration with GTT with our other shipyards as well.”
Just recently, ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. (ZIM) has signed a 10-year liquefied natural gas agreement with Shell.
The deal, valued at more than $1 billion, will supply 10 LNG-fuelled vessels that will be deployed on ZIM’s flagship ZIM Container Service Pacific (ZCP), on the Asia to USEC trade.
