Page 12 - GLNG Week 10 2023

GLNG ASIA GLNG

Korean shipping giant wins large-

scale LNG carrier contract

SOUTH KOREA IT was revealed earlier in the month that South trend and is pointing to Japanese shipping
Korean shipping giant Korea Shipbuilding heavyweight NYK as the firm behind the order.
The deal is reputed to & Offshore Engineering (KSOE) had been No official confirmation of this has yet been
be worth $765mn. awarded a large-scale shipbuilding contract by acknowledged either side of the Sea of Japan that
an as yet anonymous US ship owner-operator for separates South Korea and Japan.
a trio of LNG carriers. A similarly secretive deal in January, again for
The deal, reputed to be worth $765mn, is yet three LNG carriers but for a ship operator in the
more evidence, if it were needed, of South Korea’s Oceania region, was thought to have secured the
continued dominance in the field of LNG-re- firm around $784mn.
lated shipbuilding in the region in recent years. The three latest LNG vessels ordered, though,
According to the shipyard, it is the highest will be delivered in final form at a yet to be con-
amount ever secured for carriers of identical size, firmed date in 2027, although typically such
at $255mn per vessel. large-scale projects are executed in stages.
It is understood that KSOE’s subsidiary To date this year, KSOE has secured over
Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries (HSHI) will $6.1bn in shipbuilding orders, according to
be responsible for the bulk of the construction of sources in Korea.
the three 144,000 cubic metre vessels. This total constitutes the building of 44 ves-
As the parent company of HSHI, KSOE also sels of varying sizes and specifications. LNG
has subsidiary firms in the form of Hyundai carriers have become increasingly profitable for
Heavy Industries and Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, shipbuilders up and down the Korean coast of
both also important elements in the nation’s late, with multiple LNG carrier deals announced
shipbuilding efforts. in recent weeks.
HSHI only recently announced their own As such, in just the first two months of the
agreement with Capital Gas of Greece for a pair year KSOE shipbuilding contracts in terms of
of LNG carriers, with reports at the time indi- dollar value are already being reported as mak-
cating this order to be worth around $300mn. ing up just shy of 40% of the 2023, 12-month goal
Such are the orders coming in at KSOE that of $15.74bn.
earlier in the year, a company spokesperson In the year from January to December, 2022,
said: “since the start of the new year, we have KSOE secured orders for a total of 190 ocean-go-
been continuously receiving inquiries regard- ing vessels. Much of this was in the form of LNG
ing LNG carriers. We will focus on maximising carriers of varying capacity.
the profitability of our eco-friendly, high-value At close of business in late December, Korean
ships.” sources reported that total yearly orders had
Surprising to many in north-east Asia, brought in $22.8bn.
though, is the lack of information on those plac- Much of this came in the form of a single
ing the most recent large order bar the fact that it order for 10 LNG carriers in July of last year,
is understood to be an as of yet undisclosed LNG albeit for operators in two geographical regions.
operator in North America, according to most A similar single order in 2023 would almost
sources on the Korean peninsula. certainly push KSOE past its goal for the year in
At least one voice is, however, bucking the terms of the dollar value of orders won. ™

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 10 09•March•2023