HIGH-HEAT TANKER ORDER GOES TO CHINA
The newbuilds have been ordered to the account of Continental Bitumen, believed to be an affiliate of the French civil engineering and construction materials group Colas.
Each vessel will have a capacity of 21,000m3, providing the flexibility to transport oil products as well as high-heat cargoes, incorporating independent tanks for bitumen and asphalt. Acting through its offices in Sweden and China, technical consultancy FKAB Marine Design is lending its particular expertise in such vessels to the basic and detail design phases of the project.
The ships will be built to Bureau Veritas class, with main dimensions of 168.7m length, 28.2m breadth and 14.5m depth, and will feature FKAB’s F-Bow.
The power and propulsion system will be based on a four-stroke dual-fuel engine complemented by a battery pack conferring an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) feature to safeguard the ships from black-outs. The main machinery specification is of added note in calling for the capability to burn either LNG or liquefied bio gas (LBG) as the main fuel. Twin fuel tanks for the liquefied gas will be mounted forward on the weather deck.
The seaborne shipment of bitumen and asphalt poses particular technical and operational challenges, not least the need to maintain product at its liquid temperature, calling for continuous cargo heating at up to 250degC, and heavy hull and cargo tank insulation.
A product of oil refining, bitumen is the liquid binder for aggregates that are used to make asphalt. Continental Bitumen trades 1.5 million tonnes of asphalt annually in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and the pair of newbuild tankers will serve its dedicated terminals plus sister companies in Asia, Australia and North America.
The deal represents a further commercial milestone for Wuhu Shipyard, which has raised its profile in higher added-value fields of tanker construction in recent years through the delivery of 28,000dwt stainless steel chemical carriers, 6,600dwt direct current (DC)-powered stainless tankers, and 22,000dwt LNG dual-fuel powered chemtankers.
Located on the Yangtse, west of Shanghai, the yard is the largest shipbuilding enterprise in Anhui province.
