Page 12 - MEOG Week 23

MEOG P ro J e C ts & C om Pan I es MEOG

South Korean shipbuilders

surge on giant Qatar LNG deal

Qatar sHAREs of south Korean shipbuilders surged owners holding back on orders as global energy
on tuesday following a landmark deal for Qatari demand nosedived and oil prices hit record lows.
liquefied natural gas carriers. LNG producing Korean shipyards are the biggest builders of
giant Qatar Petroleum said on Monday it signed LNG carriers winning more than 90% of carrier
deals with south Korea’s biggest three shipbuild- orders in 2019. They also secured the entire order
ers to secure more than 100 vessels worth about for 53 LNG carriers from Qatar back in 2004.
$19.2 billion. Breakdown of the newest order by ship-
This is the largest shipbuilding deal in the builder is yet to be seen as QP did not reveal this
history of the LNG industry in which QP has info in its announcement.
secured about 60% of the global LNG shipbuild- Recently, MEOG reported on Qatar reaffirm-
ing capacity through to 2027. ing its commitment to a massive expansion of
Boosted by the announcement, Daewoo its liquefaction capacity, despite the market cur-
shipbuilding & Marine Engineering shares on rently reeling from oversupply.
tuesday shot up 14.41% while samsung Heavy Despite QP aiming to slash spending by 30%
shares rose 18.27%. this year to cope with the collapse in oil and gas
shares of Korea shipbuilding & Offshore prices plans to raise its LNG production from
Engineering which owns Hyundai Heavy 77mn tonnes per year currently to 126mn tpy by
increased by 6.4%. 2027 were said to be on course, according to QP
These orders are a huge boost for the trio as CEO saad al-Kaabi in a webcast on May 21.
the shipbuilding industry has been significantly For all the positivity, QP terminated 350
affected by the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. members of staff on June 07 as its business con-
the three shipbuilders saw a significant tinues to be severely impacted by the market
decline in their order books this year due to downturn.™

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 23 10•May•2020