The Winterthur-based marine engine manufacturer WinGD and two Chinese state-owned companies are to supply ammonia-fuelled engines for the new Newscastlemax bulk carriers built by the Belgian shipping company CMB.TECH. CMB placed the order with WinGD in January 2023. Now, WinGD has announced a four-party agreement concluded by the two existing partners with the Chinese shipbuilder CSSC Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding (QBS) and the engine manufacturer CSSC Engine CO (CSE), which is also based in China.
“Having progressed the engine design and vessel integration concept rapidly with CMB.TECH over the past nine months, enlisting the mutual cooperation of the shipyard and engine builder is a critical next step,” said WinGD CEO Dominik Schneiter in the statement. According to CMB.TECH CEO Alexander Saverys, the agreement will help to “decarbonise our business and our customers’ logistics”.
The order from CMB.TECH is for the development and delivery of large X72DF-A engines for the propulsion of ten 210,000-ton bulk carriers. It was announced in January that this series of engines will be built at a Chinese shipyard in 2025 and 2026. WinGD highlights that “the close cooperation and shared responsibility reflected in the agreement” underlines the “groundbreaking nature of the order: the vessels will be the first ammonia-fuelled bulk carriers to be built; the WinGD engine designs will be the first of their size for ammonia; and they will be the first ammonia engines built in China.” ce/mm
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