It's an all-China roundup this week as we feature news involving Chinese-built vessels. An Italian operator has named its newest car carrier and recent deliveries include a pulp carrier and a multi-purpose ship. Orders meanwhile include heavy lift ships for a Dutch operator and dry cargo vessels for operation in the Caspian Sea.
Grimaldi formally named its new ammonia-ready pure car and truck carrier (PCTC) Grande Svezia in a ceremony at the Port of Wallhamn in Sweden on Monday, May 25.
The PCTC was delivered to Grimaldi in late 2025 following completion at China Merchants Heavy Industry. Together with sister ship Grande Shanghai, she belongs to a new series of five vessels each capable of transporting up to 9,000 CEUs.
Design work on the entire five-ship series was undertaken by naval architecture firm Knud E. Hansen of Denmark.
Jumbo has awarded a contract to Chinese shipbuilder Dajin Heavy Industry for the construction of two heavy lift vessels in a series.
The vessels will form a new fleet that Jumbo said will be designed to support a broad range of heavy lift transport operations. The first heavy lift vessel is scheduled to be delivered in 2028, followed by the second in 2029.
Jumbo has developed the vessels in-house. The company said this is its regular practice, enabling it to incorporate lessons learned into successive generations of vessels, thereby ensuring continual fleet evolution.
KTZ Express Shipping, the marine transportation arm of Kazakhstan's state-owned railway company KTZ, has placed orders for six river-sea capable cargo vessels.
Four of the ships will be built by Jiangsu Haizhongzhou Shipping Industry in China while the remaining two will be constructed by Baku Shipyard in Azerbaijan.
All six vessels will be capable of transporting general and containerised cargo. Their areas of operation will encompass the Black and Caspian Seas and will form part of a shipping route between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) subsidiary CSSC Chengxi Shipyard delivered a new pulp carrier to local shipowner CITIC Financial Leasing on Wednesday, May 13.
CSPC Pisces is a sister ship of CSPC Venus and CSPC Mars, which were built by CSSC subsidiary Shanchuan Heavy Industry and were delivered in 2025, and CSPC Sagittarius, which was handed over earlier this year.
The newbuild has a length of 225 metres, a beam of 36 metres, a draught of 10 metres, a deadweight of 85,000, and a range of 25,000 nautical miles.
Singapore-based AAL Shipping formally named its newest heavy lift vessel in Guangzhou, China, on Tuesday, May 12.
AAL Mumbai was built China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) subsidiary Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding. She is a sister vessel of the 2024-built AAL Hamburg and AAL Limassol and the 2026-built AAL Newcastle.
Like her sisters, the 32,000DWT, dual-fuel multi-purpose vessel AAL Mumbai was designed by CSSC subsidiary Shanghai Merchant Ship Design and Research Institute in collaboration with AAL and Columbia Shipmanagement in compliance with DNV class rules.
