South Korea’s Hyundai Glovis said it would charter one newbuild LNG carrier for 10 years to Australian LNG player Woodside.
The charter deal also includes an option for additional five years, Hyundai Glovis said in a statement on Tuesday.
With this, the South Korean operator of a large PCTC fleet and the shipping unit of Hyundai Motor Group enters the LNG transportation business.
Hyundai Glovis said that both its CEO Kim Jung-Hoon and Woodside’s chief Meg O’Neill attended the online signing ceremony on Tuesday.
Hyundai Glovis is the first shipping company in Asia to sign a contract with Woodside, according to the statement.
To fulfill the contract, Hyundai Glovis has launched a new ship construction project which should be complete in the second half of 2024, the company said, but it did not provide any additional information.
Following delivery, the LNG carrier would transport LNG produced in Australia to global customers, including in Northeast Asia.
Besides LNG, Hyundai Glovis said it would cooperate in hydrogen shipping with Woodside as well.
Brokers recently reported that Hyundai Glovis had ordered one LNG carrier, backed by a Woodside charter, at South Korea’s Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries.
HSHI’s parent KSOE said the deal for the 174,000-cbm LNG carrier had a price tag of about $218 million with delivery scheduled by August 2024.
