KOREA LNG BUNKERING

SEOUL, May 10 -- South Korea held a ceremony Wednesday to christen a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunker vessel equipped with a homegrown advanced cargo system, the industry ministry said.

The Blue Whale ship was constructed at the dockyard of Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. in the southern port city of Ulsan for three years from 2020 with 55.4 billion won (US$41.8 million), and it is the first vessel equipped with the advanced Korean type KC-2 cargo design, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The country developed its own cargo technologies from 2004 to 2014, dubbed KC-1, and built four bunkering vessels adopting the system. Based on that, it launched a project in 2017 to upgrade the system to come up with the advanced KC-2 tank design.

The Blue Whale will be able to provide 7,500 cubic meters of LNG fuel directly to vessels, compared with an average of 30 cubic meters of LNG carried by a truck, which is expected to boost efficiency of LNG bunkering on the ocean, according to the ministry.

"It is our shipbuilding industry's achievement after 20 years of hard work. We will be able to secure advanced, high-value homegrown cargo technology, as the Blue Whale will verify the KC-2 system for commercialization," the ministry said in a release.

The government, meanwhile, vowed to extend support for the shipbuilding industry, which has seen a recovery recently based on stable orders.

Some 180 billion won will be earmarked for technology development this year, and the government will extend refund guarantees (RG) for shipbuilders, according to the ministry.

An RG is a form of security for ship purchasers, who usually make advance payments on an order. If the ordered vessel cannot be delivered, a bank that has taken on the guarantee of the shipbuilder would make the refund.

South Korea captured the No. 1 spot in global shipbuilding orders in the January-March period, accounting for 40 percent of the global total, or $9.4 billion, government data showed.