HD KSOE wins order for 2 LNG carriers

South Korea's HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (HD KSOE) on Thursday said it landed a deal to build two liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers from an African shipping company worth $530 million dollars (680 billion won).

The per vessel price of $265 million is the highest in history for an LNG carrier.

HD KSOE will build the two ships each measuring 174,000 cubic meters at HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co.'s shipyard in Ulsan for sequential delivery by November 2027. HD KSOE has thus achieved 96.9% of its 2023 order target of $15.7 billion.

Global shipping service provider Clarkson Research said a new LNG carrier as of June cost $260 million, up 36.8% from $190 million in June 2021.

“Some raised the possibility of a fall in LNG carrier prices but this announcement showed how price hikes haven't ended," an industry insider said.

Hanwha Ocean Co. on July 31 announced that it would build an LNG carrier for $250 million, leading to forecasts of falling prices for such vessels. Yet this contract was agreed on early this year and reportedly contained an option for future orders to build ships at the amount set at the time of the deal.

“This wasn't a low-priced order because the contract reflected the price of a new ship ($250 million) early this year,” a shipbuilding pundit said.

Also grabbing attention was HD KSOE taking four years to deliver both ships by 2027. Shipbuilders usually require two to three years to complete construction, but the recent flood of orders from global shipping companies has resulted in periods of up to four years.

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com