COSCO SHIPPING Energy Transportation Co., Ltd. released the Announcement of Resolutions of the Ninth Meeting of the Board of Directors in 2024. The company held the Ninth Meeting of the Board of Directors in 2024 on September 9, and considered and passed the “Proposal on the New Construction of Two 175,000 cbm LNG carriers for COSCO SHIPPING LNG Investment (Shanghai)”, in which the Board of Directors of the Company agreed that its subsidiary, COSCO SHIPPING LNG Investment (Shanghai) would invest in the construction of two 175,000 cbm LNG carriers through its wholly-owned subsidiary, COSCO LNG Investment.
According to the announcement, COSCO LNG Investment will set up two new natural gas transportation companies in Hong Kong, each with a registered capital of US$76.5 million, and invest in the construction of two 175,000 cbm LNG carriers in Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Corporation(DSIC) (one LNG carrier for each company), with a total investment of approximately US$509.23 million.
COSCO SHIPPING Energy Transportation will increase its capital to COSCO SHIPPING LNG Investment (Shanghai) by approximately US$153 million, and then COSCO SHIPPING LNG Investment (Shanghai) will increase its capital to COSCO LNG Investment by US$153 million, and later COSCO LNG Investment will invest in the construction of two LNG carriers. The shipbuilding contract will be signed in the near future.
The above investment project is the second time that COSCO SHIPPING Energy Transportation has ordered LNG carriers from DSIC. On August 31, 2023, COSCO SHIPPING Energy Transportation announced that it had entered into construction contracts with DSIC for three 175,000 cbm LNG carriers with a total value of approximately $700 million through three single ship companies , with deliveries on March 31, 2027, June 30, 2027, and April 30, 2028, respectively. Upon delivery, the new shipbuildigs will be chartered by Sinopec for a fixed term of 19 years from the date of delivery of each vessel with an option term of 5 years.
Meanwhile, the two 175,000 cbm LNG carriers newly invested by COSCO SHIPPING Energy Transportation are also the second LNG carrier order signed by DSIC this year. The first order this year came from OCEAN JADE INVESTMENT LIMITED, a joint venture of China Gas, Wah Kwong and CSSC (Hong Kong) Shipping, and the parties signed a shipbuilding contract on April 26 for two 175,000 cbm LNG carriers.