Recently, Nantong SinoPacific Offshore & Engineering Co., Ltd. (referred to as CIMC SinoPacific), a subsidiary of CIMC Enric, has successfully entered into a contract in respect of an order for 2 + 2 medium-sized liquefied gas carriers with Avance Gas, the world's leading owner of liquefied gas carriers, with a contract value of nearly RMB900 million.

This is the first order for CIMC SinoPacific to build 40,000 m³ LPG liquid ammonia carriers, marking a further breakthrough in the design and construction capability of CIMC's small and medium-sized liquid gas carriers, and filling the gap of the product series of A-tank liquid gas carriers of CIMC SinoPacific.

Schematic Diagram of A-tank Liquid Gas Carrier

This is the first cooperation between CIMC SinoPacific and Avance Gas. A construction order for two 40,000 m³ LPG/liquid ammonia carriers and an order for two alternative vessels of the same type have been contracted.

As a new generation of mid-sized liquefied gas carriers, the vessel will be equipped with three A-tank cargo holds, which can effectively save tank capacity and improve the economic performance of the vessel. At the same time, the vessel will adopt the dual-fuel propulsion of LPG and be equipped with the high-pressure LPG dual-fuel main engine. Compared with diesel fuel, the carbon dioxide emission will be reduced by 12%, which can effectively reduce the operational pollution emission and greenhouse gas emission.

The vessel type can carry a wide range of liquefied gas cargoes such as LPG, liquid ammonia, vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), etc., and can meet the needs of cargo exchange transportation.

Liquid ammonia, as a zero-carbon energy source and as an important carrier for storing and transporting hydrogen energy, is expected to continuously grow in output and trade volume. According to industry data, by 2050, the global trade volume of ammonia will reach 240 million tons, up 13 times from 2021, and 70% of which are green ammonia or blue ammonia. The specifications and size of the medium-sized liquefied gas carriers of this order match with the transportation scale of the liquid ammonia batch transaction. In the future, the type of ship is also expected to become the backbone of zero-carbon energy transportation.

It is understood that the order made a new breakthrough in both the design and construction of the vessel type and the tank capacity, filling the gap in the product series of A-tank liquid gas carriers of CIMC SinoPacific.