China handed over its first domestically designed 180,000-cubic-meter liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier on Sunday at a shipyard in Nantong, Jiangsu Province. The vessel, Celsius Georgetown, has departed for Singapore, according to media reports.
The Celsius Georgetown was built by China Merchants Industry's Haimen base. It measures 298.8 meters in length and 48 meters in width, and is equipped with a dual-fuel low-speed propulsion system. The vessel is designed to transport LNG at temperatures as low as minus 163 degrees Celsius and is the largest LNG carrier completed in China to date by cargo capacity.
The delivery represents a major breakthrough in China's high-end clean energy shipbuilding sector. LNG carriers are regarded, alongside aircraft carriers and luxury cruise ships, as one of the "crowning jewels" of the shipbuilding industry due to their highly complex design and construction requirements.
With this handover at China Merchants Heavy Industry's dock in Nantong, China now has five shipyards capable of building and delivering LNG carriers, placing the country's overall capabilities among the world's leading ranks.
