On August 20, the first ship in the series, the 18,500 DWT product oil/chemical tanker “CAPTAIN M. KYRIAKOU” (AA016M), built by CSSC’s Wuchang Shipbuilding for Greece’s Athenian Sea Carriers, was successfully delivered, marking a significant milestone in the construction project of this series of vessels.
At the delivery ceremony, representatives from multiple organizations including Athenian Sea Carriers, SeaQuest, LR, Odely, Braemar, CSSC Trading, and Wuchang Shipbuilding were present to witness this important moment.
Jan Ande on, CEO of SeaQuest, stated: “The Wuchang Shipbuilding project team not only possesses solid professional expertise but also actively responds to the shipowner’s needs with a highly responsible attitude. They fully considered practical operational requirements during the ship’s design and construction phases, laying a solid foundation for the smooth progress of the project. All parties involved have established a good cooperative relationship, thereby ensuring the successful delivery of this 18,500 DWT chemical tanker.”
Since the project’s initiation, Wuchang Shipbuilding has attached great importance to it, pooling superior resources and quickly forming an experienced project management team to take full responsibility for the design, procurement, and construction of this series of vessels. Faced with numerous technical and management challenges during the construction of the first ship, the project team focused on meticulous management. They implemented systematic, thorough planning and precise dynamic control from project planning, production technology preparation, material procurement, to full-process quality management, effectively ensuring the efficient and orderly progress of ship construction. By comprehensively applying advanced processes and technologies such as segment non-allowance manufacturing, simulated block assembly, modular construction, efficient welding, and process front-loading, and deeply integrating the rhythmic construction mode of the berth assembly line, they achieved continuous optimization of the production process and efficient integration of resources. This significantly enhanced overall production efficiency and construction accuracy, effectively shortened the construction cycle, and laid a solid foundation for the high-quality delivery of the ship.
This type of ship has an overall length of 149.8 meters, a beam of 22.8 meters, a depth of 12.7 meters, a design draft of 8.5 meters, an endurance of 10,000 nautical miles, and a speed of 13 knots. The ship is an unlimited navigation area Type II & III product oil/chemical tanker. It is mainly used for the transportation of product oil and chemicals. Compared to similar ships, its performance parameters feature lower fuel consumption, higher speed, and greater loading capacity.
This project utilizes variable frequency electric cargo pumps, offering more flexible cargo handling and better economy. It also features LNG ready, methanol ready, and ICE 1C notations, adopts the latest 6.6KV high-voltage shore power system, and has an unmanned engine room. It is a high-end new-generation chemical tanker characterized by technological leadership and environmental friendliness.
This series comprises a total of 10 ships, with 9 currently under construction. The production progress of the subsequent vessels is overall controllable, with all work proceeding orderly. Among them, the second ship has entered the sea trial stage, the third ship is undergoing mooring trials, and the production of the remaining subsequent vessels is also steadily advancing. The entire project is currently being executed strictly according to the rhythmic production plan, with overall progress proceeding smoothly.
The successful delivery of this ship further consolidates Wuchang Shipbuilding’s position in the small and medium-sized chemical tanker market and also reflects the continuously growing influence and competitiveness of Chinese manufacturing in the global shipbuilding industry chain. In the future, Wuchang Shipbuilding will continue to deepen cooperation with international partners, promote the research, development, and construction of more high-end ship types, and contribute to the green and low-carbon transformation of global shipping.
