HUDONG-ZHONGHUA Shipbuilding (Group) Co has secured another liquefied natural gas carrier to serve Shanghai's LNG project.

The nation's sixth homemade liquefied natural gas carrier is expected to be delivered in October 2010 to carry LNG from Malaysia to Shanghai's Yangshan Deep Water Port.

The carrier will be owned and managed by Shanghai LNG Shipping Co, a joint venture between China LNG Shipping (Holdings) Co, Shenergy Group and China National Offshore Oil Corporation.

The deal, signed on Sunday in Beijing, is the sixth vessel built by Hudong-Zhonghua. The new carrier's capacity will be 147,000 cubic meters.

Three of its previously delivered five vessels were used in LNG terminals in Guangdong Province and two were employed by the Fujian LNG project. The new vessel is expected to boost the city's fuel supply as currently the fuel is transported to Shanghai by one Malaysian carrier.

China will import more LNG as well as increase receiving terminals in coastal cities to solve fuel shortages, said Zhang Guobao, head of the energy bureau at the National Reform and Development Commission.