Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries has secured an order to build two LNG carriers for about $506 million, according to Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering.
KSOE said on Thursday its unit Hyundai Samho would build the two vessels for 626.7 billion won ($506 million) or some $253 million per vessel, which is a very high price.
The shipbuilder aims to deliver the ships to an undisclosed shipper in Oceania by November 2026, KSOE said without revealing further information.
This order comes just two days after KSOE revealed an order under which Hyundai Heavy will build three LNG carriers tied to Greece’s Dynagas, the first LNG carrier order in 2023.
Capital Gas behind the order?
Shipbuilding sources told LNG Prime that Greece’s Capital Gas, led by Evangelos Marinakis, is most likely behind this order for two 174,000-cbm LNG carriers.
Capital Gas ordered two 174,000-cbm LNG carriers at Hyundai Samho in June last year for about $240 million per vessel.
In September 2021, Capital Gas took delivery of the sixth newbuild LNG carrier, Asklipios, chartered by Cheniere.
New York-listed Capital Product Partners bought all of these six LNG carriers as well as the 174,000-cbm, Asterix I, scheduled for delivery this year.
Besides these seven LNG carriers, Capital Gas has seven more vessels on order in South Korea scheduled for delivery between 2023 and 2026, not including these two new LNG carriers, according to its website.
Last year, Capital Gas also bought the 138,000-cbm LNG carrier Trader, previously known as British Trader. Capital Gas renamed this vessel Trader II.
In addition to this vessel, brokers also reported that Capital Gas recently bought MISC’s 2002-built 137,000-cbm LNG carrier, Puteri Intan Satu, for about $30-$35 million.
