Denmark’s Celsius Tankers, a unit of Celsius Shipping, has ordered two more 180,000-cbm LNG carriers from China Merchants Heavy Industry in Jiangsu.
The Danish firm now has six firm LNG carriers on order at the Chinese shipbuilder but with more options.
In December last year, Celsius and CMHI signed the 4+2+2 contract for the 180,000-cbm LNG carriers.
Jeppe Jensen-led Celsius chartered the first four LNG carriers to Clearlake Shipping, a subsidiary of energy trader Gunvor, and these vessels will be delivered in 2026 and 2027.
CMHI officially started building the first of these four 298.8 meters long ABS-classed LNG carriers during a steel-cutting ceremony held on October 23, according to a China Merchants statement.
Jensen also attended the ceremony along with officials from China Merchants and LNG containment giant GTT.
The founder and executive chairman of Celsius announced during the ceremony that Celsius ordered two more LNG carriers (vessels number 5 and 6) at the Chinese yard, the statement said.
Also, Jensen said that Celsius added four more optional LNG carriers (vessels number 9 to 12) to the agreement.
He signed the deals during the ceremony, the statement said.
China Merchants did not provide the delivery dates or the price tag of these new vessels.
Shipbuilding sources told LNG Prime that Celsius could pay less than $230 million for each LNG carrier.
Including these two firm LNG carriers and vessels on order in South Korea, Celsius will have 20 LNG carriers in its fleet.
On the other hand, these are the first LNG carrier orders for CMHI.
The Deltamarin-designed vessels will feature MAN ME-GA engines and GTT’s Mark III Flex containment system.
The China Merchants yard in Jiangsu won a license from GTT in October last year to construct large LNG carriers using GTT membrane technologies.