Swedish company Berg Propulsion has signed an extended collaboration agreement with China’s Jiangsu Dajin Industry.
The agreement follows Berg being named the shipyard’s ‘supplier of the year’ for 2024. Building on longstanding relationships between senior management at Berg and Jiangsu Dajin Industry, the two companies have worked together across orders for 69 ships since mid-2021. Bestway Marine & Energy Technology subsidiary Jiangsu Dajin Industry is now Berg’s largest China-based shipbuilding customer. The agreement was signed at Berg’s Shanghai offices.
Stefan Sedersten, CEO Berg Propulsion, said: “Jiangsu Dajin Industry is one of our key clients globally. This is another important milestone in this sincere collaboration and Berg looks forward to working closely with Jiangsu Dajin to offer integrated capabilities and move forward together into the future.”
Nearly 60 ships ordered have been of the 5,200 dwt and 5,900 dwt multipurpose types for which Berg technology has been strongly preferred. In each case, Berg’s scope of supply includes the MPP950 main propulsion system with gearbox and shaft alternator, plus Berg’s Dynamic Drive and MPC800M Remote Control System. Berg and Jiangsu Dajin also cooperated in delivering one 6600 dwt ro-ro container vessel in 2023. Installed with twin four–stroke engines, the ship features twin Berg CP propellers, a fuel-optimising fully redundant network frequency stabiliser and Dynamic Drive.
Recent orders will see the partners working together on a series of 11 container feeder ships of 1064 TEU capacity. Berg’s scope of supply for each includes one MPP1320 main propulsion system, a 6000mm diameter propeller plus control units. Demonstrating the way the collaboration is supporting new opportunities for shipbuilding and for Berg in China, these will be the first boxships built by the ambitious yard, which has added sites at Taizhou and Nantong to its Zhenjiang facility in the last two years. The choice of Berg as propulsion partner for the gearless set up that works with these ships’ two-stroke engines came after a strong recommendation from Jiangsu Dajin Industry.
With Berg’s propulsion equipment coming from Europe, and European owners featuring strongly amongst Jiangsu Dajin’s customer base, production planning and supply chain management are considered to have been key to the partnership’s growing appeal. Berg is evaluating options to extend its relationships with Jiangsu Dajin and other builders in China to bring in its broader control technology portfolio.
Liu Nan, Party Secretary and MD, Best Way Marine Section, said: “During my visit to Berg’s factory in Sweden in 2023, I was deeply impressed by the plant’s refined management and outstanding products. Today’s signing not only represents the joint effort to build excellence in traditional shipbuilding but also marks the beginning of a new journey toward innovation, leadership, and breakthrough development.”
The joint journey to date was recently recognised in front of 500 workers at the yard, with the presentation of Jiangsu Dajin Industry’s ‘supplier of the year’ award to Berg.
Wang Xiaohua, MD East, Berg Propulsion, added: “There’s a mutual trust between Berg and Jiangsu Dajin, where the natural match between our products and their ships has been nurtured by cooperation, knowledge sharing and flexibility through multiple projects. This is a partnership which proved its resilience in the face of the supply chain challenges set by Covid; its renewal and extension is good news for Chinese shipbuilding and ship owners worldwide.”
Image: Berg Propulsion and the Jiangsu Dajin shipyard have extended their cooperation (source: Berg Propulsion/JLA)
