By Wu Xiaoyun

On the morning of 19th January, the 300,000-ton VLCC (very large crude carrier) ‘ALSACE’ berthed at Berth No.1 of China Merchants Heavy Industry (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd. in Nantong Port Tonghai Port Area. It is learnt that the ship has a length overall of 330.2m. Its moulded breadth is 59.6m and the moulded depth is 30.5m. The displacement has reached 320,350 tons. It is the largest oil tanker to enter the Yangtze River in the navigation history of the main channel of the Yangtze River.

The ship ‘ALSACE’ belongs to Saipem, an Italian marine engineering giant. It is planned to undergo a FPSO transformation at China Merchants Group for about 3 years. The contract value has exceeded 2.5 billion yuan.