LNG

July 22 (LNGJ) - Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, South Korea’s third-largest shipbuilder and a leading construction yard for LNG carriers, is on the verge of ending a dispute with contracted workers that has disrupted work at the Goeje facility in South Gyeongsang province and cost the company more than $400 million as of July 21.

   DSME said the construction of eight vessels at five docks at the shipyard has been hampered with delivery dates pushed back by two to five weeks. The union representing the striking workers, the Korea Metal Workers’ Union, has now informed the company they were willing to end their strike and accept a previously offered wage increase if lawsuits seeking damages from the strikers were dropped.

Tsakos Energy Navigation (TEN), the Greek shipping company with a small LNG fleet of three vessels, has ordered four LNG-powered Aframaz tankers from a South Korean shipyard as first-half earnings resulted in a loss.