Classification society DNV said that owners have placed orders for record 83 LNG-powered vessels in the second quarter of this year.
“Despite very slow growth towards the end of the quarter, the second quarter stands out as the strongest-ever quarter for LNG newbuilds contracting with 83 vessels added,” Martin Wold, principal consultant at DNV, said.
He said that DNV has added six vessels in June to its Alternative Fuels Insight platform, but due to an adjustment of a previously reported container vessel order, the net growth last month stopped at only two additional vessels.
“However, the pipeline is piling up with LOIs and rumors of numerous container vessel and car carrier orders, so the LNG bunkering market is likely to experience a bit of “ketchup-bottle effect” over the next few months,” Wold said.
The June count includes orders by Utkilen and Navios Partners.
To remind, owners placed in total 30 orders for LNG-powered ships in May. This followed record 51 ships in April.
807 confirmed LNG-powered ships
According to the DNV platform, 303 LNG-powered ships are already in operation, while there are 504 LNG-fueled vessels on order.
Owners also placed orders for 229 LNG-ready vessels.
LNG-powered car and passenger ferries continue to lead the way with 46 in operation. The operational fleet also includes 39 oil/chemical tankers, 36 containerships, and 34 offshore supply ships.
As per vessels on order, LNG-powered containerships account for a big part of the orders with 169 units. Owners also ordered 94 car carriers, 54 crude oil carriers, and 49 bulk carriers.
These statistics do not include smaller inland vessels or dual-fuel LNG carriers.
Besides LNG-powered and LNG-ready vessels, there are 38 bunkering vessels in operation and 18 on order, the platform shows.