Hengli Heavy Industries has signed and activated shipbuilding contracts with three internationally renowned shipowners for six very large ammonia carriers (VLACs) within a single week.

The latest orders comprise four 93,000-cubic-metre vessels and two 88,000-cubic-metre vessels, marking another major breakthrough for Hengli in the high-value-added gas carrier segment.

Hengli has already achieved significant progress in VLAC construction. On June 23, the shipbuilder successfully launched its first 93,000-cubic-metre VLAC, the world’s first VLAC to be constructed and launched from a slipway.

The achievement challenged the industry’s long-established practice of building large gas carriers exclusively in dry docks and demonstrated Hengli’s growing engineering and production capabilities.

The vessel features independently manufactured cargo tanks and is equipped with an LPG dual-fuel engine developed by Hengli. The shipbuilder has therefore established in-house capabilities covering both the core cargo containment system and the propulsion package, creating competitive advantages in construction costs, delivery schedules and supply-chain coordination.

The six-vessel order intake represents more than a numerical increase in Hengli’s orderbook. It signals a strategic breakthrough in the construction of high-value-added vessel types.

Hengli’s orderbook is rapidly expanding beyond its traditional portfolio of container ships, bulk carriers and tankers into gas carriers and other technologically advanced vessel segments. Its gas carrier business has now entered a new phase of scaled and serial construction.