Standing on the nearly completed Hull of H1860A, the spectacular sight of the downtown Shanghai skyline is only a mere eight kilometers upstream. Hudong Zhonghua shipyard has just celebrated its 90th birthday and has building departments in various Shanghai locations. This makes their scheduling logistics and the newbuilding site team inspections rather complex. The Odfjell newbuildings are in a shipyard on the banks of the Huangpu river, which flows through Shanghai towards the Yangtze delta.
The building progress of the world’s largest stainless steel chemical tankers is steady and the first of the four 49,000 dwt vessels is scheduled for slipway launching on November 23rd this year.
As in all newbuilding projects, the initial startup has been slightly delayed due to unforeseen technical issues – with all design departments struggling to optimize the available spaces for their own complex systems. The first vessel is scheduled for delivery in May/June 2019, with the remaining vessels due to enter the fleet at three monthly intervals thereafter.
The vessels consist of 33 cargo tanks in Duplex Stainless steel, giving a cargo capacity of approximately 55,000 cubic meters. The 13 center tanks are separated from the wing tanks by two longitudinal cofferdams, like the Polish class vessels. Nine of the center tanks are additionally equipped to carry Propylene Oxide.
The 49,000 dwt vessels are built up using 232 blocks (Lego Bricks), giving a final lightship weight of approximately 13,600 tonnes. When fully loaded they will have a draft of 13.2 meters.
The MAN Main Engine is assembled and tested within the yard and is of type 6G50ME-C-HPSCR 9.5 TIII. Giving SMCR power output of 7,800 kw at 86 rpm, these engines will normally run at 75 rpm, giving NCR of 5,100 kw, consuming about 20 tonnes fuel per day.
The four Chinese built MAN generators will have a capacity of 4,400 kw, however these vessels will not be equipped with shaft generators.
The remaining two vessels of the six orders will be 38,000 dwt with 40 cargo tanks, 14 centers and 13 pairs of wings tanks. Cargo capacity will be about 45,000 cubic meters with a fully loaded draught of 11.0 meters.
The steel cutting ceremony for the first of the two 38K vessels was carried out on October 11th, with the last ceremony scheduled for January 8th, 2019. If all goes to schedule the last vessel will be delivered on September 30th, 2020.
See video from the first steel cutting ceremony in September last year:
