The Danish pump specialist Svanehøj has secured an order from Samsung Heavy Industries to provide 42 pumps for three new very large ethane carriers (VLEC).
The ships have been ordered by the Chinese company Zhejiang Satellite Petrochemical and will be used to carry liquid ethane from Texas, USA, to the company’s petrochemical terminal in Lianyungang, China.
The Svanehøj order includes 24 offloading pumps, 12 spray pumps and six fuel pumps. All of the pumps will be manufactured in Denmark and delivered to Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea within the first six months of 2020.
“3–4 years ago we predicted that there would be opportunities in this area as the international demand for ethane for the production of plastics has risen. Together with our French partner, GTT, we have worked to develop solutions specifically for these VLECs, and we are now beginning to see the results,” said Svanehøj sales director Hans Høyer Jensen.
Svanehøj has previously supplied pump systems for ships that transport ethane, but not ships as large as these.
“The order is a notable recognition of our expertise and a strong signal that Svanehøj is a competitive supplier of pumps for membrane tanks on a vast scale,” said Høyer Jensen.
Headquartered in Aalborg, Denmark, Svanehøj Group designs and manufactures specialised deep well and in-line pumps for the marine and upstream oil & gas industries. In 2018, the investment company Solix acquired Wärtsilä Pumps from Finland’s Wärtsilä Group and established Svanehøj Group with companies in Denmark, UK and Singapore. Svanehøj Group manufactures the brands Svanehøj (Denmark), Hamworthy Pumps (Singapore), Eureka and Dolphin (UK) and employs around 230 people.
