Shipping Shares To China

Wärtsilä and China State Shipbuilding Corp. (CSSC) announced that Wärtsilä has transferred its 30% shareholding in Winterthur Gas & Diesel Ltd. (WinGD) to CSSC, one of the largest shipping conglomerates in China. WinGD will continue as an independent, international company to continue development of Wärtsilä’s two-stroke low-speed marine engine technology to serve all merchant ship markets and customers worldwide.

 “With the transfer of the shares in WinGD from Wärtsilä Corp. to CSSC, we will be able to establish even closer cooperation with one of the leading global shipbuilding conglomerates, CSSC, enabling us to accelerate the development of reliable, efficient and innovative two-stroke low-speed engines meeting the market demands of merchant shipping of the future,” said Martin Wernli, CEO of WinGD. “WinGD will continue to work with the Wärtsilä Corp. service network to serve our customers for after-sales support.”

WinGD traces its roots to 1898 when the Sulzer Brothers of Switzerland signed an agreement with Rudolf Diesel for his new engine technology. In April 1997, the company merged with Wärtsilä Diesel Oy and in 2000 the Swiss company was renamed Wärtsilä Switzerland Ltd.

In July 2014, Wärtsilä announced the formation of the 70-30 joint venture with CSSC, which was formally established in January of 2015 as Winterthur Gas & Diesel Ltd.