National Chemical Carriers (NCC) has awarded a contract to South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Company to build a SR245m ($65m) specialised chemical tanker.

NCC is a subsidiary of the local National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia.

The chemical tanker will be the largest of its kind with a total cargo capacity of 86,000 cubic metres and will comprise 31 cargo tanks. It will be classed by DNV with full IMO 2 notations and have a deadweight tonnage (DWT) of 75,000 tonnes.

Deadweight tonnage is the weight of the loaded vessel including crew, passengers, cargo, fuel, water and stores minus the actual weight of the ship.

NCC expects the tanker to be delivered in 2013 and also plans to build a second tanker in the future.

Dubai-based NCC Odfjell Chemical Tankers will operate the vessel when it is complete and it will be jointly owned by NCC and its partner Norway’s Odfjell SE.

Construction of the new tanker is part of NCC’s plans for expansion in the Gulf region.

NCC currently has a fleet of 13 vessels that transport chemicals, vegoils and clean petroleum products with a DWT capacity of almost 600,000 tonnes.

In addition to this, NCC has 14 vessels on order in South Korea to be delivered over the next three years. These vessels will increase the DWT capacity of NCC’s fleet to 1.3 million.