China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) and French shipping group CMA CGM have signed an order to build 16 container ships worth a total of 21 billion yuan ($3.06 billion) in Beijing.
The agreement was signed during a state visit to China by French President Emmanuel Macron .
The deal set a record for the largest order involving China's shipbuilding industry, according to China Shipbuilding Trading Co., Ltd. (CSTC), a subsidiary of CSSC Group.
The ship order includes the construction of 12 dual-fuel methanol-powered containerships, which can carry 15,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), and four dual-fuel liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered containerships, which can carry 23,000 TEUs.
The methanol-powered container ships, measuring 366 meters long and 51 meters wide, will be able to carry 156,000 tons of cargo. The ships will be built by two CSSC subsidiaries in Shanghai, eastern China, and Dalian, northeastern Liaoning Province, according to CSTC.
The LNG-powered ships, each 399.9 metres long and 61.3 metres wide, can carry 220,000 tonnes of cargo.
France's CMA CGM Group has ordered more than 70 high-value-added green fuel ships from CSSC in the past 10 years, including the world's first 23,000-TEU LNG-powered container ship, CSTC said.
A 23,000-TEU LNG-powered container ship built for French shipping company CMA CGM. Photo: CGTN
During President Macron's first visit to China in his second term, France and China also signed a number of economic agreements involving major companies in areas such as transport, energy, agriculture, culture and science.
One of the biggest deals signed with China is to help create a new assembly line at French aircraft giant Airbus’s Tianjin plant, which will double the company’s production capacity for the A320. The new line is expected to be fully operational by 2025.
French energy company EDF also renewed an agreement with Chinese nuclear leader CGN – signed in 2007 – allowing the construction of new nuclear power plants.
In the agricultural sector, French water and waste management company Suez has won a contract for a seawater desalination project.
L'Oréal, the world's leading cosmetics company, has also reached a three-year cooperation agreement with Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba on the topic of "sustainable consumption".
At the same time, French President Macron and Chinese President Xi Jinping also agreed on cultural issues.
Under one of the agreements signed, the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City in Beijing will host an exhibition titled “The Palace of Versailles and the Forbidden City: Interactions between France and China in the 18th Century,” in collaboration with the Palace of Versailles. The exhibition was originally scheduled for 2020 but was postponed due to the pandemic.
The two countries also expressed their desire to facilitate visa applications for the movement of students and teachers working in the scientific field .
Minh Duc (According to CGTN, Euractiv)
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