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Yangzijiang revealed this in its H1 results report released on Monday.
The shipbuilder said that “the customer defaulted on the milestone payment” with “zero deposit paid”.
Yangzijiang said it has added the two vessels to inventory.
Moreover, the shipbuilder aims to complete the vessel construction utilizing internal funds and to resell the LNG carriers in the open market.
It did not provide further information.
Back in October 2022, Yangzijiang announced it won its first order for large LNG carriers from a European owner.
The contract included two 175,000-cbm LNG carriers with delivery between 2025 and 2026.
The LNG carriers feature GTT’s Mark III Flex membrane containment system.
Shipbuilding sources told LNG Prime at the time that Germany’s Hammonia Reederei was behind this order and that the vessels were each worth about $235 million.
Sources confirmed on Tuesday that Yangzijiang terminated the contract with Hammonia.
According to the sources, Hammonia could not secure charter deals for the vessels.
LNG terminal
Yangzijiang also said in the report it has recently received the government approval to convert its fully-owned chemical terminal along the Yangtze River into an LNG terminal.
This project, together with the construction of a new LNG storage tank facility, will enable the company to develop a comprehensive LNG logistics hub with storage and distribution capabilities, it said.
The estimated capital expenditure for the terminal conversion project and the LNG
storage tank facilities will be approximately RMB 1 billion ($139 million) each.
Once operational, the LNG terminal and the storage tank facilities is expected to provide an additional revenue source to the group, whilst strengthening the collaborations with LNG ship liners and traders, it said.
18 LNG dual-fuel vessels
During the first half of this year, Yangzijiang secured a total of 79 new orders worth $8.5
billion.
Demand for “clean energy vessels” remained robust with 79 percent of the new orders being classified under this category, including 12 gas carriers, 18 LNG dual-fuel vessels, and 17 methanol dual-fuel vessels, the shipbuilder said.
These new order-wins brought the group’s total outstanding orderbook to a record-high amount of $20.2 billion for 224 vessels, providing earnings visibility up to mid-2028, it said.
The H1 orders for LNG dual-fuel vessels include 8 9,000-teu containerships and 10 17,000-teu containerships.
Yangzijiang did not reveal the name of the owner.
LNG Prime reported in July, citing shipbuilding sources that Seaspan has ordered LNG dual-fuel containerships at Yangzijiang for charter to Denmark’s Maersk.
Seaspan parent Atlas also confirmed in an SEC filing that in June, Seaspan ordered 23 LNG dual-fuel containerships ranging from 9,000 TEU to 17,000 teu.
Atlas said contracts for 4 9,000-teu vessels and 5 17,000-teu vessels were “thereafter novated to certain nominees and upon delivery, these 13 newbuilds will be chartered by the company from such nominees under bareboat charters.”
Moreover, five contracts were for 17,000-teu containerships and five contracts were for 16,000-teu vessels.
Upon delivery, these ten newbuilds will start long-term charters with a customer, it said.
Four contracts were for 9,000-teu dual-fuel liquefied natural gas containerships and these contracts were thereafter novated to a customer, Atlas said.