Construction kicks off on Saga LNG’s 45,000-cbm carrier

China Merchants Heavy Industry’s Jiangsu shipyard held a steel cutting ceremony on Sunday, September 11, marking the start of construction of Saga LNG’s ABS-classed LNG carrier with 45,000 cubic meters of storage capacity.

The vessel is the first of two such vessels ordered in late 2015 by Saga LNG Shipping, the company said in a statement.

The vessel, hull numbered CMHI-188, will be the first LNGC to feature an IMO Type A LNG containment system developed by Norway’s LNG New Technologies (LNT).

Speaking of the steel cutting milestone, Saga LNG Shipping’s founder, David Wu noted that the company aims to move towards the optimization of marine LNG logistics in the small to the mid-sized segment.

Based on the LNT A-BOX technology, Saga LNG shipping aims to build, own and operate a series of small and mid-sized LNG assets, including FSUs, LNG barges, carriers, FSRUs, FLNGs ad LNG bunker vessels within a 1,000 to 100,000-cbm range, targeted at projects currently in various stages of development.

The vessel, that will feature Wärtsilä’s dual-fuel main propulsion system, is scheduled for delivery in 2018.