San Giorgio shipyard launches Italian-made LNG ships

San Giorgio del Porto, the Genoese shipyard known, among other things, for having dismantled the wreck of the Costa Concordia, has just delivered to the shipowner the vessel Green Heart, for LNG bunkering, which is the second unit (the first is the Green Pearl, which will start operating in October) built according to thestandard of green & tech shipbuilding, a sector that is expanding rapidly at a global level but still little covered in Italy. Reason why the shipyard has chosen to invest in that direction.

"With the launching and delivery of Pearl and Heart, the first two ships of the green line," explains Ferdinando Garré, at the helm of San Giorgio del Porto, "the shipyard has concretely demonstrated that it is possible to bring back to Italy the construction of complex units between 10 and 180 metres, if equipped with technologically advanced plant engineering and custom-built around a project shared from the initial stages with the shipowner. The significant gap on labour costs in general, compared to the Far East, can be, in part, rebalanced thanks to Italian and European technical know-how, particularly in the integration of complex and high-tech plants, where the price differential with Asia is significantly reduced".

With this in mind, adds Garré, "we have also equipped ourselves with the necessary skills and structures to contribute to the future logistics and infrastructure network for LNG and the new alternative fuels, which will become central with the entry into the fleet, between now and 2030, of numerous dual fuel units already in the orderbook. San Giorgio del Porto intends, therefore, to support sustainable energy distribution in Italian and Mediterranean ports, aligning itself with what is already happening in the main Northern European ports".

In line with that intention, concludes Garré, 'two years ago we set up our shipping division, with the company Genova trasporti marittimi, entrusted to Beniamino Maltese, not with the aim of competing with the shipowning market, but to create a project laboratory, where we can develop initiatives in partnership with leading operators, who maintain direct management of the ships, while San Giorgio remains a minority partner, until the industrial and operational objectives are achieved'.

The delivery of the Green Heart, which has a capacity of 5,000 cubic metres of LNG, took place on 1 July. The ship was entirely built in Italy: the hull was built at the Piombino site of San Giorgio del Porto, which has a production hub there, in addition to those in Marseille and Genoa. The hull was launched in 2024 and then transferred (via the semi-submersible barge Arcalupa) to the Ligurian capital for final outfitting and delivery. It is, the shipyard's technicians explain, "a hybrid ship with a very high technological density, equipped with a sophisticated battery system, capable of covering up to 25% of the zero-emission propulsion, as well as dual fuel engines, which can run on methanol and biomethanol".