China to Roll Out Smart Crude Oil Carrier
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
China's Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co (DSIC) is working on China's first smart crude oil carrier - a special project named "smart ship 1.0 R&D - which will incorporate technology to help the captain operate the ship.
The Chinese state media quoted Guan Yinghua, deputy chief engineer of DSIC as saying that the project was assigned by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Guan said that the very large intelligent crude carrier will be the most important result of the project. She said the smart vessels represent the future.
DSIC is a subsidiary of State-owned shipbuilding giant China Shipbuilding Industry Corp.
This year, the shipyard has delivered 24 high-end vessels, including large container ships capable of carrying 20,000 standard 20-foot containers, advanced deep-water semi-submersible drilling platforms, China's biggest ship for transporting live animals and a very large chemical tanker.
DSIC is the nation's first shipyard that can design and manufacture 300,000-ton crude carriers.
It has delivered more than 70 VLCCs and has eight orders, accounting for more than 10 percent of the total number of such carriers in operation worldwide.