South Korea’s Hyundai Samho has secured an order to build four liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers for about $1.08 billion.
Hyundai Samho’s parent HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering said on Monday that the shipbuilder will build the vessels for an unidentified owner in Oceania.
Moreover, the delivery of the four LNG carriers is expected to be completed by January 2028.
HD KSOE said the contract is worth about 1.43 trillion won or some $1.08 billion.
The price tag of some $270 million per vessel is a new record for a single 174,000-cbm LNG carrier.
Shipbuilding sources told LNG Prime on Monday that Evangelos Marinakis-led Capital is likely behind the order for these vessels.
Capital Gas already has LNG carriers on order at Hyundai Samho and also Hyundai Heavy.
In January, New York-listed Capital Product Partners took delivery of its latest LNG carrier from Hyundai Heavy. This is CPLP’s ninth LNG carrier out of 18 it purchased from its sponsor Capital Maritime and all of these vessels are managed by Capital Gas.
Prior to this new order, Hyundai Samho won a contract worth about $955 million from Qatari LNG shipping giant Nakilat.
Under this deal, Hyundai Samho will build two LNG carriers with a capacity of 174,000 cbm, while the four very large LPG/ ammonia gas carriers will each have a capacity of 88,000 cbm.
HD KSOE and its units won in total six orders for LNG carriers this year.
Including this new order, HD KSOE has so far received orders for 46 ships, including 1 offshore unit, worth $5.98 billion, which is 44.3 percent of its annual order target of $13.5 billion.
