China Shipping Development Co. (1138)’s venture will order six liquefied natural gas tankers worth about $1.2 billion by June to tap the nation’s rising demand for cleaner fuel, Chairman Li Shaode said. “We will expand LNG transportation business to make it become a new profit growth driver as soon as possible,” Li told reporters in Hong Kong today. “The deal means a 20-year shipping contract for us, which will bring us stable earnings”. The addition of the tankers comes as the world’s large...

The merged classification giant, in which DNV will have a majority stake, will trigger concerns among competitors, writes Adam Corbett in London.   Det Norske Veritas (DNV) of Norway’s merger with Germanischer Lloyd (GL) will create a new classification superpower that is set to dominate the marine-certification business.   The two have been linked as potential merger candidates ever since DNV stepped into the race to capture GL when the Hamburg-based class society was being purs...

PPL Shipyard is to build a second Pacific Class 400 jack-up rig for Perisai Petroleum Teknologi.   Scheduled for delivery in the second quarter of 2015, the rig is capable of operating in deeper waters of 400 feet and drilling high pressure and high temperature wells to depths of 30,000 feet. Douglas Tan, managing director in PPL Shipyard, noted: “Our proprietary ownership of this design offers us the flexibility to provide custom-design turnkey solutions to meet the unique require...

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal revises and raises its prices of steel plates for Asia except the Korean shipbuilders additionally by USD 20 for April/May shipment. As a result, its offer prices are raised to USD 670 CFR from this week. The environment of demand on plates is lately turning around further. Demand for construction and industrial machinery which had been sluggish in the past has been recovering in the USA, China and Japan. As for bridge related demand as well, its inquiries o...