COSCO wins first FSO contract

The Chinese COSCO Shipyard Group, a company engaged in ship repair and conversion, has secured its first Floating Storage and Offloading Unit (FSO) new building and conversion contracts.

The three contracts, which will involve the construction of an FSO vessel, the conversion of six single hull vessels to double hulls, and the conversion of two heavy lift vessels, will be worth $74.8 million. In a press release, COSCO Shipyard Vice Chairman Ji Hai Sheng said, “We are particularly pleased with our first FSO new building project. This marks our group?s entry into the lucrative offshore engineering market,”

The 52,000 DWT FSO, will be built at the Cosco Zhoushan Shipyard in Jan. 2007. The FSO contract was awarded to COSCO Shipyard in collaboration with its Singapore partner SembCorp Marine Ltd.