Changhong International has commenced construction of the 11th vessel in a series of 115,000-DWT product and crude oil tankers being built for Greek shipowner Navios, with a steel-cutting ceremony held on 1 September.

The ceremony for hull CHB3019 took place at 8.58am in the yard’s panel section joint workshop, attended by Navios’s on-site supervision team, representatives from classification society Lloyd’s Register, and Changhong International company leaders and department heads.

The vessel is part of a new-generation LR2/Aframax series, with each tanker measuring approximately 249.9 metres in length, 44 metres in breadth and 21.5 metres in depth.

A notable feature of the design is its provision for future fuel flexibility. While the vessels operate on conventional fuel oil, they can be converted to run on methanol or LNG at a later stage, Changhong International says. The ship also incorporates a high-voltage shore connection (HVSC), also known as shore power, and uses a single-compartment, single-pump hydraulically driven deep-well pump system supplied by Framo in order to increase cargo diversity and operational value.