Construction of the new tankers will commence at the end of this year at the New Times Shipbuilding Co Ltd, at the Xingang Port in Jingjiang City, China, and will continue into 2021 until all eight ships are completed. Each ship will have 20 cargo tanks, plus slop tanks.
All eight vessels will be chartered by oil major Shell, which is one of the largest chemical charterers in the industry. The ships will transport a range of Shell chemical products for its customers in various regions of the world.
According to David J. Keehan, President of Advanced Polymer Coatings, “This ‘Shell Project Solar’ brings together a diverse group of companies with Shell as the manufacturer of a wide range of industrial chemicals and the long-term time charterer of the vessels; then Shandong Shipping as the owner and operator of the tankers; then New Times Shipyard as the builder of the vessels; and finally, APC providing its patented MarineLINE® tank coating, along with application inspection, and full heat curing services. It will be a team effort to have these vessels ready within the next year.”
Mr. Keehan points out that Shandong Shipping specifically recommended the MarineLINE® coating to Shell’s technical management team over competitive cargo tank coating alternatives because of MarineLINE®’s excellent long-term performance features, versatility to carry a wide range of aggressive cargoes, and eco-friendly easy cleaning attributes.
These eight new ships will be added to the orderbook at New Times Shipyard, which has established itself as a world-class leader in applying the MarineLINE® cargo tank coating to a number of other similar MR tanker constructions in progress and already completed at the yard such as the fleet of new build tankers for Navig8. There is a very good working relationship with the New Times Shipyard and the expert team of MarineLINE® coating inspectors and heat curing specialists.
MarineLINE® is based on a unique polymer-based formulation that provides a virtually impermeable surface to handle aggressive cargoes. Today, the lining is in operation protecting hundreds of chemical and product tankers carrying aggressive chemical cargos, CPPs, edible oils, and thousands of other chemicals.