COSCO Shipping’s new ammonia-fueled ship design gets stamp of approval

COSCO Shipping Energy and COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry, units of China’s COSCO Shipping group, have received approvals in principle (AiPs) from classification societies ABS, CCS, and DNV for their design of a 50,000 cubic meter (cbm) ammonia dual-fuel ammonia/LPG carrier.

According to COSCO Shipping, the approvals were issued on October 30, 2024, signaling that COSCO Shipping Energy has achieved “full coverage” in ship type application and technical reserves across three mainstream alternative fuels—LNG, methanol, and ammonia—as well as carbon capture technology.

The Chinese company emphasized that the vessel design boasts green and low-carbon characteristics, energy efficiency, and strong cargo capacity, explaining that at the same scale, the cargo hold volume increases by approximately 1% while daily fuel consumption is reduced by about 0.5 tons under the same speed conditions.

The carrier is primarily designed for ammonia cargo but it also has the capability to simultaneously carry LPG.

“This innovative design not only offers practical solutions for the application of alternative fuels in the shipping industry but also provides robust support for the cross-regional transportation of global green energy. COSCO SHIPPING Energy continues to actively participate in building a green energy ecosystem and supporting logistics and application scenarios for the green energy industry,” COSCO Shipping said.

In terms of alternative marine fuel applications, it is worth noting that COSCO Shipping took delivery of what was described as the world’s first LNG dual-fuel very large crude carrier (VLCC) in February 2022.

The Shanghai-listed shipping company also has on order three 114,200 dwt Aframax-type crude oil tankers. The shipbuilding deal worth $289 million for green methanol dual-fuel crude oil carriers, with delivery scheduled for 2026 and 2027, was awarded to Yangzhou COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry