On August 25, the second 100,000-cbm very large ethane carrier (VLEC) built by CSSC’s Jiangnan Shipyard for Pacific Gas was officially named. The vessel, named “Pacific Merak,” was delivered the following day, August 26. It is chartered to Wanhua Chemical and financed by SPDB Financial Leasing.
Jiangnan Shipbuilding stated that the vessel is part of the “Big Dipper” (Beidou Qixing) series—a collaborative project between Shandong Marine Energy and Wanhua Chemical to build seven VLECs. This initiative serves as an innovative model of “Shandong Shipping + Shandong End-user” cooperation, created by integrating upstream and downstream industrial resources within the province and employing a customized long-term time-charter arrangement to deeply align with long-term demands for ethane import, storage, and transportation.
This type of VLEC was independently developed and built by Jiangnan Shipyard. It adopts the company’s independently developed B-type cabin cargo containment system (BrillianceE®). It is the VLEC with the largest cabin capacity in the world, and its comprehensive technical indicators have been identified as leading the world.
With an overall length of 230 meters, the vessel is designed to transport a variety of liquefied industrial and energy gases—such as ethane, ethylene, and LPG—making it the optimal, purpose-built choice for the long-haul transport of ethane from the United States.
It offers broad compatibility with major global LPG terminals and delivers significant economic benefits, featuring low fuel/gas consumption, a proprietary Type-B cargo containment system (BrillianceE®) with a low boil-off rate (BOR), no restrictions on partial loading levels, and low maintenance costs.