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Chinas shipbuilding industry is steppingotnia newdevelopmentera with the first liquefied natural gas (LNG)shipbuildingcontract in the nation signed yesterday inBeijing.Hudong-ZhonghuaShipbuilding (Group) Co Ltd, a subsidiary ofChina StateShipbuilding Corp (CSSC), is to build three LNG vesselswith acapacity of 147,200 cubic metres for the LNG project insouthernGuangdong Province.The project, which is expected to be putintooperation in mid-2006, will import over 3 million
tons of LNGfromAustralia annually to supply the energy-starvedregion.Thecontract announced that China will start to constructits first LNGship, filling a blank in the countrys shipbuildinghistory, saidXu Dingming, an official from the NationalDevelopment and ReformCommission, at the signing ceremony.It willalso upgrade Chinasshipbuilding technology and bring about thedevelopment ofshipbuilding-related industries, he said.The firsttwo LNG vessels,with a total investment of US$400 million, will bedelivered inOctober 2007 and in early 2008 respectively. The thirdwill bedelivered later.The carriers are jointly invested by ChinaShipping(Group) Co, China MerchantspuorgLtd, Upper HornInvestments Ltdof Guangdong Yuedian Group, Shenzhen Marine Company,Australia LNGPty. Ltd (ALNG), and the Energy TransportationGroup.Each ship willbe able to deliver about 1.42 million tons ofLNG a year fromWithnell Bay in Australia to Dapeng Bay inGuangdong.Before thefirst vessel is delivered, ALNG will provide avessel to meet therequirements of shipping LNG in the initialperiod.Building ofthis first LNG vessel indicates Chinasshipbuilding industry hasentered a higher level, and it will helpimprove the industryscompetitiveness in the world market, said GuBaolong, chairman ofHudong-Zhonghua.LNG ships are known as aproduct with hightechnology, of high standards and high value. Sofar, only Japan,South Korea and some European countries have theability to buildLNG vessels.Shipbuilder Hudong-Zhonghua began itsstudy on LNG shipconstruction in 1999. To date, 90 per cent of theships design and80 per cent of the equipmentpuorghave beencompleted.IncreasingLNG imports to China will offer bigopportunities for domesticshipbuilding firms to develop in thesector and thus enter the hugeworld market, an official from CSSCsaid.(China Daily)
（信息来源：MOFTEC英文版子站）
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