Furetank Rederi announced on 4th April that the Fure Vinga had been delivered from Avic Dingheng Shipbuilding Ltd. The 17,999dwt vessel is the first in a series of six sister vessels contracted by Furetank Rederi AB, Rederi AB Älvtank and Thun Tankers BV and will be serving customers predominantly in the Baltic and North West Europe. The ships will be commercially managed by Furetank Chartering in the Gothia Tanker Alliance. The 12,595gt/2018 built Fure Vinga has an ice class of 1A, a cargo tank capacity of 20,306m3 in 12 epoxy coated cargo tanks and an efficient cargo handling system with a flexible cargo pump and line arrangement ensures safe and efficient cargo operations with reduced port-turnaround time. The newbuild is built to a design developed by FKAB together with Furetank with special focus on minimal impact on the environment. The vessel has dual fuel capability, will run on LNG and has several features that reduce fuel and energy consumption resulting in extensively lower emissions of CO2, Sulphur oxide, Nitrogen oxide and particles. The Fure Vinga’s first deployment was to sail to Indonesia to load cargo for Europe.

GasLog Ltd. of Greece has expanded its fleet with its latest newbuilding, the 115,024gt/2018 built Gaslog Genoa. The company took delivery of the new LNG carrier from South Korea’a shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries on 29th March. The 293m long/45.8m wide and 170,000m3 capacity carrier has XDF propulsion and was named at the shipyard on 27th March.The ship is part of an order placed with the shipbuilder in May 2014. At the time, GasLog ordered two vessels, and secured two additional priced options from Samsung. Earlier in March, GasLog expanded its orderbook with a new 180,000m3 Flex Plus vessel with XDF propulsion from the shipyard. The newbuild, Hull No. 2274, is scheduled to be handed over in the second quarter of 2020.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) has taken delivery of the first car carrier of its next-generation Flexie series, the 63,115gt Beluga Ace, which was built at the Minaminippon Shipbuilding in Japan. The four Flexie car carriers were ordered from the yard in April 2015. The new vessel has six hoistable decks, compared with two on conventional car carriers, a feature which is expected to meet the demand for diversified vehicle and high and heavy cargo transport more effectively. The Beluga Ace boasts a rounded bow shape which aims to minimize wind resistance and is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by about 2% compared to today’s car carriers. The new series of carriers are powered by an electronically-controlled diesel engine with Low Load Optimisation (LLO) tuning by exhaust gas bypass technology. The newbuilds also adopt waste heat energy recovery system for generator engines and electric power consumption reduction technology. The revised shape of the vessels is the result of joint research by MOL, MOL Techno-Trade, and Akishima Laboratories, developed as part of the Ishin Next-MOL Smart Ship Project. The Beluga Ace is 199.9m long with a beam of 32.2m and a capacity for 6,800 cars.

NYK’s latest LNG Carrier, the Marvel Falcon, was named on 29th March at the Geoje Shipyard of Samsung Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. in South Korea. At the ceremony, the ship was named by Mr Tatsuo Yasunaga, president and chief executive officer of Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and the ceremonial rope holding the vessel in place was cut by Mr. Yasunaga’s wife. The vessel is the first ship of the series for the Mitsui & Co. Cameron LNG project, and after the delivery on 16th April, will be assigned to transport LNG mainly produced in Louisiana State, USA, for up to 25 years including optional extension periods, and an NYK Group company will be responsible for ship management. The 293m long/45.80m beam and 114,084gt vessel has a 174,000m3 capacity membrane-type cargo tank and is equipped with an X-DF diesel engine, a new two stroke large bore slow speed diesel engine able to operate on marine gas oil or boil off gas stored as liquid at cryogenic temperatures.

Pacific Gas HK Holding Ltd.’s 13,606gt/2018 built Pacific Venus and Pacific Jupiter, the first two vessels in a series of five liquid ethylene gas (LEG) carriers featuring complete cargo handling systems designed and delivered by Wärtsilä, have been completed and named. The series includes two 17,000m3 and three 22,000m3 LEG carriers, and were built by CIMC Sinopacific Offshore & Engineering Co. Ltd. (CIMC SOE) in China. The naming ceremony for the two 17000m3 vessels took place on 28th March.

Port of Dover’s flagship Dover Western Docks Revival (DWDR) development has advanced to the next stage with Buckingham Group Contracting Ltd. being awarded the contract to build the new Refrigerated Cargo Terminal (RCT). With a value of £15million the contract will deliver the construction of a 9,630m2 multi-purpose refrigerated cargo facility designed to meet the future demands of the business. The new RCT will be an externally clad steel frame building on the site of the former Hoverport with state-of-the-art facilities including eight chambers, each individually temperature controlled and capable of holding cargo between +1 and +14 degrees Celsius (+/-1C), with 20 dock levellers to produce a rapid turnaround for Port of Dover Cargo Ltd. customers. Scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2019, the terminal will be served by completely new marine and land infrastructure including two cargo berths (Berth A: 251m and Berth C: 300m, plus a dolphin) and Gottwald 5 series mobile cranes. DWDR is the single biggest investment ever undertaken by the Port of Dover and represents the next exciting evolution of the Port, delivering long-term capacity for a key international gateway handling trade to the value of £122 billion and representing up to 17% of UK trade in goods.

Teekay’s third and final Heritage Class newbuilding shuttle tanker, the 85,762gt/2018 built Dorset Spirit (above), was handed over to Teekay by Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) on 14th March. The 147,000dwt DP2 shuttle tanker joins her sister ships, the Beothuk Spirit and Norse Spirit, delivered in the fourth quarter of 2017. The latter ships started their long-term charters in December 2017 and January 2018 respectively. The Bahamas-flagged trio is intended to operate at the Hibernia, Terra Nova, White Rose and Hebron offshore oil fields located in St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador.

These vessels are purpose-built to serve in the harsh environment of oilfields off the East Coast of Canada where Teekay Offshore provides shuttle tanker services to a group of nine oil companies.

The new ships will replace two chartered and one owned vessel currently servicing this 15-year contract, plus extension options, with a consortium of 9 oil companies.

TORM of Denmark has exercised options for the construction of three MR newbuildings at Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI). TORM will pay a total of $93 million for the vessel trio which is scheduled for delivery in 2019 and through to the first quarter of 2020. In connection with the acquisition, TORM has secured commitment for vessel financing of up to $63 million from KfW and ABN AMRO respectively, which remains subject to loan documentation. Since 2017, TORM has purchased a total of nine MR vessels and two LR1 vessels for a total consideration of $352 million. The vessels are all fuel-efficient and high-specification product tankers that are compliant with the ballast water convention and ready for the IMO 2020 sulphur requirements, according to the company. TORM currently operates a fleet of around 80 tankers.

Uljanik Shipyard has announced that Kermas Energija is a new strategic partner of the yard, taking majority ownership. Following financial issues and a government bailout that called for Uljanik to find a new owner, the shipyard said it had received three bids. Along with the successful bid, the yard saw proposals from DIV, which owns rival Brodosplit, as well as Asian Bond Ventures. Kermas Energija now faces the challenge of turning around the struggling shipyard’s fortunes. The company already owns Brodotrogir.