On May 29th, 2018,the 20000TEU very large container vessel "COSCO SHIPPING VIRGO" built by SWS for COSCO SHIPPING Lines Co., Ltd, was successfully named and delivered. This was also the fourth new ship completed and delivered by SWS in May, which set a new record of the total monthly completion of a single shipyard in China exceeding 1200k DWT. By the end of May, SWS has successfully delivered nine ships this year, and achieved the goal of “half time passed, and half task completed” in one month ahead of schedule.

At the naming ceremony for “COSCO SHIPPING VIRGO”, Lei Fanpei, Chairman, also Party Secretary of CSSC Party Leadership Group, Nan Daqing, Vice President, also member of CSSC Party Leadership Group, Xu Lirong, Party Secretary and Chairman of COSCO SHIPPING GROUP, Huang Xiaowen, Member of CPC Party Committee and Vice President of COSCO SHIPPING GROUP, Wang Qi, Party Secretary and Chairman of SWS, and part of SWS leadership, as well as guests and representatives from COSCO SHIPPING GROUP, COSCON, CCS and DNV-GL were invited to attend the naming ceremony. Ms. Kanako Ip named the ship and cut the ribbon. Before the ceremony, focused on the topic of jointly serving the national strategy, deepening the reform and innovation of central enterprises, and promoting mutual benefit and win-win situation, the two sides conducted in-depth exchanges and discussions and formed a broad consensus.

Wang Qi, Party Secretary and Chairman of SWS, Huang Xiaowen, Member of Party Committee and Vice President of COSCO SHIPPING GROUP, and Nan Daqing, Vice President of CSSC, alsp member of CSSC Party Leadership Group, delivered speeches at the naming ceremony.

In the welcome speech, Wang Qi pointed out that SWS had the honor to undertake the construction contract of three 20000 TEU container vessels of COSCO SHIPPING LINES in Sep 2015, and then officially entered the ultra-large container vessel (ULCV) market. The establishment of the construction contract enabled SWS to break the monopoly position of foreign shipping enterprises in the field of this ship type, making the comprehensive strength of research, design and construction of China's super large container vessels in the forefront of the world. The ship's fuel consumption was greatly reduced by 30% compared with the previous generation, new lashing system and specifications were adopted, a large number of green shipping equipment were installed and advanced navigation and engine room management system were equipped with. The advantages of intelligence, economy and environmental protection were highly recognized by the market, and its comprehensive performance has reached the world's advanced level.

Huang Xiaowen said in his speech that the birth of this huge ship not only condenses the wisdom and hard work of the CSSC and SWS shipbuilders, but also fully reflects the admirable craftsmanship of the great country. From design to construction, the new ship has always adhered to the concept of scientific and technological intelligence, energy conservation and environmental protection, and has achieved a series of innovative breakthroughs. The ship optimized and integrated the world's leading navigation control system and communication equipment, was equipped with the most advanced energy efficiency management system, effectively ensuring the ship's low fuel consumption and emission, and reaching the green emission objective stipulated by the International Convention in advance, marking that "Made in China 2025" has blossomed and yielded in the shipbuilding industry. The delivery of the new ship will help COSCO SHIPPING GROUP implement the strategy of being a strong country in transportation and actively integrate into the construction of "The Belt and Road", so as to constantly push the enterprise to become stronger, better and bigger.

Nan Daqing pointed out in the speech that COSCO SHIPPING GROUP is the largest customer of CSSC. During the implementation of two national strategies as “"Chinese Vessel Made in domestic"” and “21st Century Maritime Silk Road”, and the promotion of the great construction of a shipbuilding power and a shipping power, focusing on green and low-carbon products development, clean energy transportation, and new cooperation modes, as the respective leading enterprises in China's shipbuilding and shipping industry, CSSC and COSCO SHIPPING GROUP keep innovating new thoughts, seek for maximum cooperation and promote the strategic development of the two groups, which has become a model of friendly cooperation between central enterprises. The new ship’s naming and delivery today will further promote the two groups towards newer goals, wider fields and closer cooperation.

The ship has a total length of 399.8 meters and a width of 58.6 meters. The deck area is as large as four standard football fields. It is about 73 meters from the bottom of the ship to the top of the superstructure, which is equivalent to the height of the Shanghai International Hotel. The maximum draught is 16 meters, the designed speed is 22.5 nm/h, the maximum load is 200,000 tons, the maximum container capacity is 20119TEU, and it is equipped with 1000 reefer sockets and registered into DNV-GL and CCS. The ship uses a G-type main engine with a high-efficiency maximum propeller, and the daily fuel consumption is greatly reduced. At the same time, the shallow draft of the light box is optimized for line-type optimization, which minimizes the overall fuel consumption during the actual operation. Its exhaust emission meets the requirements of IMO Tier II, and the lashing bridge system meets the requirements of the new Effective CSS Code Annex 14. The high and low boxes are randomly mixed in the cabin, the hatch cover can meet the disorderly lifting, and the containers can be loaded and unloaded flexibly. Meanwhile, part of slots can be loaded with 45-foot heavy boxes from the first deck, increasing the flexibility of loading. The ship's bridge house meets the requirements of DNV GL one-man bridge layout.

Jointly designed by MARIC and SWS, the ship is another brand ship that SWS dedicates to the world shipping market, marking the development, design and construction of China's ULCV has entered the world's advanced ranks and successfully entered the international super-large container vessel "building club".

The prototype ship “COSCO SHIPPING TAURUS” has sailed for more than four months, and its whole ship performance, fuel consumption, operating cost and other indicators met the requirements of design, which was recognized and praised by the ship owner. In order to make the subsequent sister ships under construction able to improve its technology, quality and overall performance, taking advantage of berth of "COSCO SHIPPING TAURUS" in China, SWS organized an after-sales service team consists of engineers and technicians specializing in design, production, supervision, QC, etc to board on the ship to learn the operating conditions and collect crew’s feedbacks. Subsequently, the after-sales service team conducted special research and discussion, made improvement in the “COSCO SHIPPING VIRGO” according to ship owners’ comments and some defects found. It embodies the professional responsibility of honesty, trustworthy and quality-first of SWS, as well as the craftsmanship of striving for perfection and excellence.

Finally, let's review the video record of the construction of three 20000TEU container vessels for COSCO SHIPPING at SWS -- joint hands and achieve win-win cooperation.