EN 
it
The Hudong-Zhonghua (HZ) Chinese shipyard handed over to the Japanese shipowner Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) the first of the two bunkers rented by Total Marine Fuels Global Solutions for the ten-year supply of the French shipowner CMA CGM's containerships.
The newly delivered tanker will operate in the North Sea, while the sister ship whose construction has already been started on the same site will be based in the port of Marseille. The supplies of the first will concern the nine ultra-LNG container ships of the CMA CGM already under construction and which will be used for at least ten years on the Europe-Asia route (supplies of at least 300,000 tons per year of LNG are estimated).
The remaining LNG twenty ships ordered by CMA CGM, also under construction, with 15,000 TEUs, will operate in the Mediterranean. In recent days, simultaneously with the delivery of the first bunker ship, there was the first refueling operation from ship to ship of the Costa Smeralda in the port of Marseille, the flagship of Costa Crociere disarmed due to the health crisis, which the LNG was running out.
The two bunkers, 135 meters long, are currently the largest in the world of their kind with a supply capacity of around 18,000 m3 of LNG. They are also the first to be equipped with the latest generation Mark III Flex fuel containment system from the French LNG engineering company Gaztransport & Technigaz (GTT).
Mark III Flex, thanks to the improvement of the thermal and structural efficiency of the tank and a greater thickness of the steel, increased to 480 mm, guarantees better insulation and a production of boil gas of 0.07% volume / day; the unit is able to ensure a complete re-liquefaction.
The second of the two bunkers will have a 25% higher refueling speed than the first and will be able to complete each operation in less time. In April 2019 Total Marine Fuels Global Solutions and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines had also signed a long-term lease agreement for this second bunker ship specially designed to supply LNG in the Mediterranean area to a wide range of ships, including container ships, oil tankers, ferries and large cruise ships. The delivery of this second tanker is scheduled for the second half of 2021.
Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) Co., Ltd. is one of the most important shipbuilding companies under the control of China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), the largest Chinese shipbuilding conglomerate. The company is headquartered in Pudong, Shanghai, and its naval production is carried out mainly in Pudong, Puxi, Changxing Island and Chongming Island in Shanghai.
