China State Shipbuilding Co.(CSSC), the nation's biggest shipyard, launched three self-developed models of liquefied natural gas (LNG) ships on Sunday.

The three LNG vessels, with a capacity of 160,000 cubic meters, 175,000 cubic meters, and 220,000 cubic meters, are built to meet the increasing shipping demand as the world's economy is on the track of recovery, said the CSSC at a press release Sunday.

The LNG ship, often dubbed as the "maritime super freezer", is regarded a high-tech product with high-added value in the shipping industry, since natural gas can only be turned into the liquefied after the temperature dropped below minus 163 degrees Celsius.

Following Japan, the Republic of Korea and several European countries, China is one of the few countries that manages LNG manufacturing technology.

The CSSC had delivered 5 LNG vessels by December last year since it started the research of LNG designing and manufacturing technologies in 1997. The country's first LNG ship sailed off in December, 2005.

The global market share of the CSSC's stood at 9.1 percent in 2009, making it the world's second largest shipbuilder in terms of million deadweight tonnages (DWT), after Hyundai Heavy Industries of the Republic of Korea, the company's general manager Tan Zuojun said in an interview with Xinhua in January.

(Xinhua News Agency February 7, 2010)