China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released on Monday, September 1, its first “White List” of 51 shipyards eligible for favourable policy support, in an effort to battle over-capacity in the global shipping market, Reuters reports. The ‘White List’ was announced last year by Chi
StealthGas Inc., a ship-owning company primarily serving the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sector of the international shipping industry, has acquired two newbuilding LPG vessels as part of its fleet expansion program. The company exercised the acquisition options with a Korean yard and the addition
DryShips Inc., an international provider of marine transportation services for dry bulk and petroleum cargoes, through its majority owned subsidiary, Ocean Rig UDW Inc., has reached an agreement with Jiangsu Rongsheng Heavy Industries (RSHI), to cancel the newbuilding contracts for four ice-class pa
Istanbul headquartered Palmali Group took delivery of 7,100 DWT tanker Shovket Alekperova on August 30, which is the seventh tanker of the RST22M project, reports Marine Engineering Bureau in a press release. A distinctive features of RST22M, RST22, 005RST01 and RST12 design tankers are fully revolv
United Arab Emirates-based classification society Tasneef has signed a contract with Drydocks World to provide the classification and maritime surveying services to the Drydocks World’s fleet comprised of 11 ships. Three ships have already been surveyed (Shindagha-5, Umm Suqeem and Zabeel-4). As for
Van Oord has ordered a new subsea rock installation vessel. Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group Shanghai will build the vessel at its Ningbo yard in China, with delivery scheduled for 2016. Subsea rock installation is a proven technique for the protection and stabilisation of offshore structures and pipe
American bulk carrier owner Interlink Maritime is pursuing an aggressive fleet expansion plan comprising up to eighteen bulkers ordered at three Chinese yards. Five 39,000dwt bulker orders have been placed with Zengzhou Shipbuilding. The contract includes options for five more. The five, worth $240m
Hamburg Süd celebrated on August 28 the christening of its container ship “San Christobal” at the Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard in Ulsan, South Korea. The vessel is the second newbuild in the series of three new “San”-class ships. Each container vessel in the “San”-class has a nominal slot capac
China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) has expressed interest in building the country’s first self-developed luxury cruise ship. According to CSSC Chairman, Hu Wenming, the group has been building up its know-how on construction, design and management of large cruise ships, stressing that the s
Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co, a subsidiary of South Korean shipbuilding giant Hyundai Heavy Industries, has secured orders for three vessels, two liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers and one asphalt carrier. The LPG order, worth USD 104.7 million, comes from the Marshall Islands-based operator Stealth
Royal IHC (IHC) has started constructing Easydredge 2700, the first vessel in its range of standard trailing suction hopper dredgers (TSHD), in response to the increasing global demand for TSHDs. IHC says that the new vessel will be supplied with a “world-dredging package”, which includes bottom doo
A sharp rise in LPG shipping demand, particularly out of the US, is driving an ordering frenzy for very large gas carriers (VLGCs) which will increase the size of the LPG shipping fleet by over 50% over the next two years, according to the LPG Forecaster report published by shipping consultancy Drew
Antwerp-based LNG and LPG owner and operator Exmar said that the construction of the world’s first floating liquefaction unit Caribbean FLNG at Wison Heavy Industry’s shipyard in Nantong, China is progressing as planned. Start of operations is scheduled from the second half of 2015. Exmar and Pacifi
Lloyd’s Register has issued a report entitled Seaborne Ethane: a Report into the Commercial Need and Technical Requirements for Very Large Ethane Carriers that looks at the commercial landscape, regulatory issues and technical realities of a new trade in ethane emerging as a result of increased US g
