Kanfer Shipping orders two LNG bunker vessels from Taizhou Yard

Norwegian shipping company Kanfer Shipping AS has signed a contract with China-based Taizhou Wuzhou Shipbuilding Industry for the construction of its first two small-scale LNG bunker and distribution ships.

The order for the 6,000 cbm LNG bunkering pair comes on the back of a Letter of Intent (LoI) from January this year.

The vessels are scheduled for delivery by the second half of 2023. Under the terms of the contract, Kanfer has options to build two additional vessels of the same size.

“Taizhou has deep experience in building small-scale LNG carriers and Kanfer’s technological partner, CGR Arctic Marine AS, has worked closely for years with the yard. This relationship and their competitiveness have made Taizhou an ideal choice for construction of Kanfer’s 6,000 cbm capacity small-scale vessels,” says founder and CEO of Kanfer Shipping Stig Hagen.

CGR Arctic Marine, the Norway-based technological partner of Kanfer, is the conceptual developer of LNG distribution and bunker vessels. The two companies signed an exclusive agreement in July last year to cooperate on LNG bunkering technology.

The key features of the vessel design:

• Mono-tank design, with simple arrangement and minimal boil-off
• Pure gas-electric power production combined with hybrid battery technology to reduce environmental footprint
• Increased maneuverability with Azipull thrusters and bow thruster combined with joystick operation
• 500 cbm MDO cargo tank

The design features in question are expected to allow for Capex and Opex savings in the form of reduced crew size, lower operational and management costs as well as the application of LNG-fuelled design instead of opting for a dual-fuel.

“Having strong cooperation with blue-chip shipping companies and LNG terminal owners has positioned Kanfer to move forward today with these two new LNG bunkering vessels,” said Hagen.

He expects the demand for new LNG bunkering centres to increase with the expansion and diversification of the global gas-driven fleet.

“We will be building a large fleet of small- and medium-scale LNG distribution and bunkering ships. We see a rapidly expanding market for LNG bunker vessels as the world maritime industry continues to pivot towards its decarbonisation goals through LNG. The current very modest orderbook for new LNG bunkering vessels makes our decision well-timed, especially now that equivalent, new-built vessels to be delivered in 2022 and 2023 have already been chartered out.”