China’s Jiangnan Shipyard has signed a letter of intent to build two liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers worth about $460 million.
Jiangnan’s parent China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) revealed this in a statement on Tuesday saying the owner is a company from Singapore.
If the contract is finalized, CSSC said Jiangnan would deliver the two 175,000-cbm LNG carriers by July 2027.
CSSC did not reveal any additional information regarding the LNG carrier deal.
Besides these two LNG carriers, Jiangnan also signed a letter of intent for four 98,000-cbm very large ethane carriers with two owners from Hong Kong.
All of the six vessels have a price tag of about $1 billion, according to CSSC.
Shipbuilding sources told LNG Prime on Tuesday that Shandong Marine Energy, a unit of Shandong Marine, had signed the letter of intent with Jiangnan for the two LNG carriers.
Also, the sources said that Sinopec would charter these two LNG carriers.
On top of these two ships, China’s Dalian Shipbuilding Industry (DSIC) is expected to build three LNG carriers for Sinopec charter as well, according to the sources.
Japan’s MOL and China’s Cosco are expected to order these vessels at DSIC, the sources said.
Jiangnan has this year secured its first order for large LNG carriers from a unit of UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (Adnoc). In total, Jiangnan will build six 175,000-cbm LNG carriers for Adnoc Logistics & Services.
Besides Jiangan, DSIC also won its first large LNG carrier order this year. The shipbuilder will build four 175,000-cbm LNG carriers for China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES), a unit of China Merchants Group.