South Korean shipbuilding giant Samsung Heavy Industries has won a new order to build two liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers.
SHI said on Wednesday it will build the LNG carriers for an unidentified owner in Oceania for 609.7 billion won ($496 million) or about $248 million per vessel.
The shipbuilder plans to deliver the vessels by January 15, 2027.
SHI did not provide any additional information regarding the contract.
Shipbuilding sources told LNG Prime that Japan’s shipping giant MOL is likely behind this order.
This is the first LNG carrier order SHI revealed in 2023.
Prior to this order, SHI and JGC won a contract from Petronas to build the first nearshore FLNG with a capacity of about 2 million tonnes.
Including the FLNG contract worth about $1.5 billion, SHI already secured orders worth some $2 billion this year, or about a fifth of the order target of $9.5 billion.
SHI expects owners to order more than 70 LNG carriers at yards this year and the shipbuilder will also focus more on the FLNG market.
It secured orders worth about $9.4 billion in 2022, surpassing its target of $8.8 billion.
This includes 36 LNG carriers, marking a record for the largest number of orders for LNG carriers in a year for the shipbuilder.