Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Secures First LNG Carrier Order Among Top 3 Shipbuilders This Year... Contract Worth 900 Billion KRW Signed

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering has become the first domestic shipbuilder this year to secure orders for liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers.

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering announced on the 31st that it had secured orders for four LNG carriers worth $745 million (approximately 891.2 billion KRW) from shipping companies based in Bermuda and Europe.

Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries plan to build two ships each, with deliveries scheduled sequentially starting from June 2023.

The specifications of the LNG carriers ordered this time have not been disclosed, but based on newbuilding prices from Clarkson Research, a shipbuilding and shipping analysis firm, they are estimated to be around 174,000 cubic meters.

Meanwhile, Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering has secured orders worth about $2.9 billion (42 vessels) as of July this year. This is about 19% of the targeted $15.7 billion. The global ship order volume in the first half of the year decreased by 58% compared to the same period last year due to the impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

In particular, LNG carrier orders sharply declined to 6 vessels from 31 in the same period last year. Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering secured orders for 13 LNG carriers from Asian and European shipping companies in December last year but did not receive any LNG carrier orders this year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.