Ulstein wins first Chinese contract for offshore wind ship design

The vessels will be the first purpose-made SOVs designed for the Chinese Offshore Wind industry.

The 60 and 100 person designs with both designs will feature Ulstein’s X-BOW® and X-STERN®. They aim to provide optimal operational capability and economy and will feature hybrid propulsion with batteries. Technicians will be provided with safe and stepless access from the vessel to the wind turbines, and the designs ensure that there is sufficient storage and well-organized logistics onboard the vessels.

The contract marks Ulstein’s entry into the Chinese offshore wind market after the first dedicated offshore wind support vessel (Siem Moxie, now: Seaway Moxie) made her entry into the European market in 2014. Since then, Ulstein has designed and built several other operation and maintenance (O&M) vessels for the European offshore wind market. Ulstein has also developed Jones Act compliant O&M vessel designs for the US market.

Ulstein’s cooperation with the ZPMC shipyard goes back to 2012 when the Ulstein DLS 4200 heavy-lift vessel design was constructed there, and currently, the JSD 6000 project, another Ulstein heavy lift vessel design, is in good progress at the yard.

With more than 50% market share, Shanghai Electric is the largest offshore wind turbine supplier in China and is also a large integrated equipment manufacturing enterprise. “Shanghai Electric is the leading provider of offshore wind turbines in China, and with these two world-class SOVs, we believe we can bring more values to our clients and provide a safer working environment to our colleagues at sea,” says Ma Chengbin, General Manager of Engineering Service Company at Shanghai Electric.