On June 3, at a critical juncture in the global green transition of the shipbuilding industry, Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding made a debut at the Nor-Shipping 2025 with three types of its latest products, once again demonstrating the company’s strong scientific research and innovation capabilities in the field of future-oriented clean energy vessels. The three latest products have successfully obtained the Approval in Principle (AIP) certificates issued by five major international classification societies, namely the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), Bureau Veritas (BV), China Classification Society (CCS), DNV GL (DNV), and Lloyd’s Register (LR).
174,000 cbm ice-strengthened LNG carrier
The 174,000 cbm ice-strengthened LNG carrier is the plus version of the G5 “Changheng” series LNG carrier launched by Hudong-Zhonghua.This type of vessel has a total length of 299.0 meters, a beam of 46.4 meters, a designed draft of 11.5 meters, a cargo hold capacity of 174,000 cubic meters, and a designed speed of 19.5 knots.
It is equipped with a GTT NO96 Super+ liquid cargo containment system, which can cover the navigation needs of Class 1A ice areas, and has the advantages of good fast performance and less ice area emissions. Its deck is cold-resistant and temperature-resistant, with strong global versatility. It has the advantages of clever control and operation, and full route coverage, providing efficient and diversified solutions for the global LNG transportation market.
8000TEU LNG powered container ship
The 8000TEU LNG powered container ship is 260 meters in length, 42.8 meters in width and 24.8 meters in depth. It adopts a double island design and can carry independent or membrane LNG fuel tanks with a capacity of 6,600 cubic meters. This ship type is green and environmentally friendly, safe and reliable, has a strong cargo capacity, is energy-efficient, has excellent comprehensive performance, and is flexible in gas processing, which will provide a highly competitive new option for the shipping industry.
102,000 cbm very large ethane carrier (VLEC)
The 102,000 cbm very large ethane carrier (VLEC) has a total length of 230 meters, a beam of 36.6 meters, and a designed draft of 11.9 meters. This type of ship uses the GTT NO96 membrane liquid cargo containment system and innovatively adopts a three-cargo hold design. Compared with vessels of the same size, its loading capacity has increased by 10.4%, making it the strongest cargo carrier in the VLEC class, enhancing transportation efficiency while reducing construction costs by millions of dollars.
In terms of the power system, it is equipped with a dual-fuel propulsion system with ethane as the main fuel and a full-capacity reliquefaction system, which can efficiently utilize and process ethane cargoes with high methane content, providing customers with more economical, flexible and diversified cargo transportation solutions.
The three vessel designs that received AIP this time cover the most promising key areas of green shipping. Their designs all focus on high energy efficiency and clean fuel use, and combined with Hudong-Zhonghua’s mature experience and independent technology accumulation in the field of large LNG carriers, they are highly reliable and market adaptable, providing a more environmentally friendly and flexible Chinese solution for the global shipping industry to achieve green carbon reduction (zero carbon) sustainable development.