LNG

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering said it received an order to build two liquefied natural gas carriers for Maran Gas of Greece as South Korean shipbuilding undergoes a revival led by LNG vessels and LNG-powered ships.

DSME said the LNG vessel orders were valued at 502 billion-won ($420 million) and were the latest in a growing stream of newbuilds.

The company said it would deliver the LNG carriers to Maran Gas Maritime, an affiliate of Greece's Angelicoussis Shipping Group, by November 2025.

DSME said the vessels would have capacity of 174,000 cubic metres capacity and GTT No. 96 GW membrane containment systems.

The company received another order earlier in December 2021 for four newbuilds on behalf of the Japanese shipowner Mitsui OSK Lines.

DSME added that its 2021 order book amounted to $10.86Bln and exceeded its target of $7.7Bln.

Korea Shipbuilding and Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE), the world's biggest shipbuilder by order backlog, said it had a stellar 2021.

KSOE, whose affiliates include Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co. and Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, said it has 1.67 trillion won ($1.39Bln) worth of ship orders this week.

The orders included one for a Europe-based shipper to build six 15,000 20-foot equivalent unit (TEU) LNG-powered containerships.

“The container carriers will be gradually delivered to the client from the first half of 2024,” said KSOE.

In other deals, the company said it would build one LNG carrier for an Asian ship owner with the delivery scheduled in the second half of 2024.

It will also build three feeder container ships for an Oceanian client, with the delivery set in the second half of 2023.

KSOE said it aimed to win $17.5Bln worth of orders in 2022, higher than last year's target of $14.9Bln. In 2021,the company achieved $22.8Bln worth of orders.

Korea Shipbuilding and Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE), the nation's largest shipyard group, has won orders to build seven liquefied natural gas carriers at a time of increased competition from Chinese shipyards.

The company said the orders were worth a combined 1.56 trillion won ($1.35 billion) in value and come at a time when the Korean industry was been winning a larger portion of global orders for all kinds of ships.

KSOE is a holding company of three shipbuilders comprising Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hyundai Samho and Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co.

With the latest LNG newbuilds, KSOE said it had obtained orders for 176 ships and two offshore plants worth the equivalent of $16.8Bln so far this year, exceeding its annual order target of almost $15.0Bln.

The Korean LNG carrier orders are a mix from both Asian and European shipowners and covered all three subsidiaries.

South Korea had re-taken the global No. 1 ranking for monthly orders in May 2021 after losing it to China in April 2021, nine months after retaking the leading position in global shipbuilding in July 2020.

During the first part of 2021, Korean shipbuilders also won orders for 31 ships to be propelled by LNG, taking up 46 percent of 67 LNG-powered ships ordered in the year to date.

The Korean yards are still favoured by Russia in its LNG shipping expansion.

A Russian newbuild ordered from Hyundai Heavy Industries will be the latest in a series of Sovcomflot’s next-generation conventional Atlanticmax LNG carriers, with three sister ships already in operation, the “SCF La Perouse”, the “SCF Barents” and the “SCF Timmerman”.

The newbuild will have capacity of 174,000 cubic metres and be owned and operated by Sovcomflot, with options for HHI to build two additional vessels.

The newest Korean-built Russian vessel would be fitted with an X-DF propulsion system, operated by a slow-speed diesel engine with a direct drive to the propellers, enabling a substantial reduction in the vessel’s fuel consumption.

Gaztransport and Technigaz (GTT), the French designer of liquefied natural gas maritime and onshore storage systems, has been fined by the Korea Fair Trade Commission, the country’s anti-trust regulator, for unfair tie-in sales to South Korean shipbuilders.