China's Cosco, France's GTT Renew Cooperation Deal

China’s Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry (CHI) and France’s GTT have renewed their strategic cooperation agreement they signed in 2018 regarding newbuilding, maintenance, and retrofits of LNG carriers or LNG-fuelled merchant ships, the two companies said on May 19 in separate statements.

“The renewal of this agreement will not only help GTT and CHI to face the current market challenges together but also to provide clients with more comprehensive solutions for their projects,” CHI said.

In the framework of this agreement, one of the CHI's shipyards, Cosco Zhoushan, has already been qualified by GTT as an approved repair shipyard, and CHI plans a second shipyard to be qualified this year.

“GTT and CHI both see LNG as fuel as a promising solution to reduce the environmental footprint of maritime transport which is subject to stricter environmental regulations (in particular limitation of sulphur oxide emissions). This collaboration will mutually strengthen their respective offers in this market,” GTT said.