COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian), a tanker division of China COSCO Shipping took delivery of the 43,687gt/72,000dwt Lian Shan Hu (above) on 17th September the Dalian Shipbuilding Industry facility. The 220m long/36m beam vessel is the fourth in the series of wide-body, energy-saving LR1 oil tankers, tailored by Dalian Shipbuilding Industry for COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian) and with an endurance of over 18,000 nautical miles. The next day the new 165,511gt VLCC named Cosnew Lake was christened and delivered at the same yard. This 332.5m long, 60m beam, 20.5m draught and 319,000dwt VLCC can carry 2,500 barrels of crude oil via the Straits of Malacca.

Damen Shipyards Group and the parent company of Eesti Gaas (Estonia’s leading energy company) has signed a contract for the construction of the first of a series of short-sea LNG bunker vessels to operate in the Baltic Sea. The LGC 6000 LNG class vessel, scheduled for delivery in September 2020, will help accelerate the wider adoption of LNG in the Baltic Sea by providing a mobile and efficient ship-to-ship distribution service for the first time. The 100m vessel will be built at the Damen Yichang Shipyard in China and will carry 6,000m³ of LNG in two type-C tanks at -163° C.

Erik Thun Group of Sweden took delivery of the third 17,999dwt LNG-fuelled tanker, the product/chemical tanker Thun Venern at China’s AVIC Dingheng Shipbuilding on 27th September after completing sea trials in August. The 12,770gt Thun Venern is the third vessel in a series of six identical dual fuelled tankers ordered by the company and alliance partners Furetank Rederi AB and Rederi AB Älvtank.

Grieg Star of Norway formally acquired the 30,488gt/2009 built semi-open hatch vessel Star Majesty, previously named Samos Majesty, on 25th September from an undisclosed source.

The 190m long/32.30m beam and 50,800dwt Star Majesty entered into the G2 Ocean pool as of 30th September.

Mitsui E&S Shipbuilding Co. of Japan has won orders for three Post Panamax bulkers that will take the form of the shipyard’s new neo 87BC eco ship design. The newly ordered trio will be delivered from the second half of 2020.

Sailcargo Inc. is undertaking an ambitious and groundbreaking project to build a carbon-negative sailing cargo tallship on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. The aim is to help direct the global maritime industry towards carbon neutrality and a more sustainable future. The construction will be undertaken using old-world ship building techniques and run on renewable energy, aiming to make the whole process, start to finish, ethical, economical and sustainable. The vessel to be built will be named Ceiba and is a wooden, three-masted, square topsail schooner to trade along The Pacific Exchange (PAX) Line.

Scotline’s new 3,450gt Scot Carrier was launched on 14th September at the Royal Bodewes Ship Yard in Groningen (above). She is the first of two sister ships from the yard and will be the largest ship in the Scotline fleet with a 4,800dwt. She has been built to comply with all the latest legislation including provisions to be ready for the ballast water treatment system. The Scot Carrier is 89.98m long with a beam of 15.20m, a maximum draught of 5.68m meters and a cargo capacity of 6,650m³. She will be powered by a MaK engine, will be sailing under the British Flag like the rest of the Scotline fleet and is expected to be fully operational and delivered in November 2018. The ship will also have a hold depth of just under 9m in height as well as being container fitted and ice class.

Royal Dutch Shell has completed the first ship-to-ship LNG bunkering to take place at the Port of Rotterdam using the new 9,816gt/2017 built specialised LNG bunker vessel, Cardissa. The ship refuelled was the 64,909gt/2018 built Sovcomflot tanker Gagarin Prospect, which also happens to be the world’s first LNG-powered Aframax tanker. The fuelling of the Gagarin Prospect was the first such operation under the LNG fuel supply agreement between Shell and Sovcomflot signed in 2017. The Shell Shipping & Maritime managed Cardissa has capacity for around 6,500m³ of LNG fuel. Ordered in 2015, the vessel was built by STX Offshore & Shipbuilding and features an LNG transfer system and sub cooler unit making her capable of loading from big or small terminals, serving a wide variety of vessels, including containerships, ferries and coastal vessels. The unique seagoing capability of this source of LNG also allows her to serve customers with LNG fuel in locations throughout Europe. The 114,000dwt Gagarin Prospect entered into a Shell multi-year time charter in July 2018 and her sistership, the Samuel Prospect, is scheduled for delivery into Shell time charter in 2019. In the future, Shell will also utilise the Cardissa supply LNG to the world’s first LNG-powered cruise ships under an agreement with the Carnival Corporation.

Teekay delivered the second ice-class LNG vessel to the Yamal LNG project on 6th September in Sabetta, Russia. At the request of the charterer, the team delivered the vessel almost three months earlier than anticipated. The 128,975gt/170,000m³ LNG capacity Rudolph Samoylovich joins the Eduard Toll as the second of six Arc-7 LNG carriers that Teekay will provide to the Yamal LNG project by 2020. The vessel transitted the Northern Sea Route after her delivery from the yard in South Korea at the end of August. As part of the project, the first along northern Russian shores that are trapped by thick ice for most of the year, 15 carriers in the Arc7 class were ordered from South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME).