HHI receives order for LNG carrier pair

South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) has received an order for a pair of LNG carriers from South Korea's Korea Lines.

The order has been valued at about 442bn won — equivalent to about $187mn each — in line with another pair ordered from HHI by an unnamed Bermuda-based firm and a third pair ordered by a European firm from fellow Korea Shipbuilding and Offshore Engineering (KSOE) subsidiary Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries (HSHI) in late July.

The pair ordered by Korea Lines are scheduled for delivery by the end of October 2023 and will be under term charters signed by Korea Lines with Shell earlier this month, for vessels built by KSOE, exercised as an option in a charter agreement for two vessels slated for delivery in 2022 from HSHI. Shell also signed a pair of charters each with Norwegian owner Knutsen and Chinese banking firm ICBC for KSOE-built LNG carriers.

Korea Lines spun off its LNG carrier business in July this year and will transfer the four ordered carriers to the new entity — Korea LNG Shipping — upon delivery of the vessels, the owner said yesterday.

The three ordered pairs placed with KSOE subsidiaries are the only carrier orders placed with South Korean firms so far this year. South Korean builder Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering received orders for a floating storage and regasification unit in May from a Bermuda-based owner and two transshipment barges from Russia's Novatek in June.

And China's Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard received orders for a trio of carriers in late June from Chinese owner Cosco Shipping Energy Transportation — to be chartered to state-owned CNPC — and a pair of short-sea 79,800m³ carriers from Japan's K Line, which are set for charters with Malaysia's Petronas.

By Samuel Good