South Korean shipbuilding giant Samsung Heavy Industries has secured a large order to build 15 liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers.
Samsung Heavy said on Tuesday it will build the 174,000-cbm LNG carriers for an unidentified owner in the Middle East for 4.57 trillion won ($3.45 billion).
This is the largest single vessel order for SHI.
The shipbuilder will sequentially deliver the LNG carriers by October 2028.
SHI did not provide any additional information regarding the contract.
Shipbuilding sources told LNG Prime that this order is probably related to the second part of the giant QatarEnergy shipbuilding program.
The price of about $230 million per LNG carrier is almost the same as QatarEnergy’s shipbuilding deal with HD Hyundai Heavy for 17 LNG carriers.
Last year, QatarEnergy signed the deal worth about 3.9 billion with HD Hyundai Heavy, kicking off the second phase of the shipbuilding program.
The prices of about $229-230 million per vessel are much lower than the current average price for a 174,000-cbm LNG carrier in South Korea of about $260-265 million.
Under the first phase of the shipbuilding contract, QatarEnergy contracted 60 LNG carriers at South Korea’s three shipbuilders HHI, SHI, and Hanwha Ocean, and China’s Hudong-Zhonghua.
With the order at HHI, the firm booked 77 vessels.
If confirmed, this newest order at SHI brings the total to 92 LNG carriers.
LNG Prime was also the first to report that QatarEnergy has signed a shipbuilding deal with China’s Hudong-Zhonghua for the construction of eight Q-Max LNG carriers as part of its shipbuilding program.
The giant vessels will have a capacity of 271,000 cubic meters and are scheduled to be delivered in 2028 and 2029, shipbuilding sources previously said.