Samsung Heavy Industries has secured a second-phase project for liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers worth 4.6 trillion won (US$2.5 billion), following HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, marking another success for two of South Korea’s major shipbuilders in the Qatar LNG project.
On Feb. 6, Samsung Heavy Industries announced that it had signed a construction contract for fifteen 174,000 cubic meter LNG carriers with a shipowner from the Middle East. The order, valued at 4.5716 trillion won, is the largest single order in the company’s history.
Although the shipowner was only identified as being from the Middle East, industry insiders speculate that the order is part of Qatar Energy’s second-phase project, given the nature of the ships and the scale of the order. The Qatar project initially ordered 65 ships in 2022, with Korean shipbuilders securing orders for 54 of them.
This second-phase order follows HD Hyundai Heavy Industries’ agreement last October for a 5.28 trillion won deal to build seventeen LNG carriers. With this latest announcement, Samsung Heavy Industries becomes the second domestic shipbuilder to disclose a construction contract for the project.
With only Hanwha Ocean remaining to announce its order, industry expectations suggest Hanwha Ocean will soon share news of a contract, speculated to involve twelve ships. The company is reportedly in the final stages of price negotiations.
During the first-phase project, Hanwha Ocean secured contracts for the most ships, with nineteen, followed by Samsung Heavy Industries and HD Korea Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering with eighteen and seventeen ships, respectively.