Leading cruise line MSC Cruises is to drydock six of its fleet at Palumbo Malta Shipyard in Valletta this year as part of its scheduled fleet maintenance programme. MSC Cruises took a 50% ownership of this leading Mediterranean repairer in 2020.

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The 2014-built 5,300dwt PSV Island Condor, owned by Ulsteinvik-based Island Offshore Management AS, is to undergo conversion into a multi-purpose offshore support vessel (MPSV) at Norway’s Myklebust Verft, based in Gursken, and will be renamed Island…

China’s COSCO Shipping is to convert four of its container ships from single-fuel engines to dual-fuel engines that can operate on both methanol and fuel oil. The four vessels being converted include two 13,800-TEU capacity Camellia-class vessels and two 20,000-TEU capacity Virgo-class vessels. All four vessels will have their conventional MAN B&W 11S90-ME-C10.5 main engines retrofitted to 11S90ME-LGIM (Liquid Gas Injection Methanol) 10.5 units.

The conversion project will see MAN Energy Solutions provide a package consisting of engineering parts, project management and technical assistance at the shipyard carrying out this work. The shipyard has not yet been named.

The first vessel will be converted during the first quarter of 2025 and will be the first ship to be fitted with MAN’s S90-LGIM diesel engine. COSCO’s contract with MAN includes an option on retrofitting a further nine container ships.

The COSCO contract follows on from an earlier contract for MAN from Maersk which calls for the retrofitting of G95 engines on eleven of its container ship fleet to dual-fuel methanol units. MAN Energy Services said that it expects a huge wave of dual-fuel retrofits among the 300 ship installations currently in service.