HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (HD KSOE) delivered a 174,000 cbm liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier on Jan. 6, kicking off its 2025 ship exports. According to HD KSOE, the LNG carrier was ordered by an Asian shipping company in June 2022 and built by HD Hyundai Samho in Yeongam, Jeollanam-do.
In addition, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and HD Hyundai Mipo are scheduled to deliver a 16,000 TEU and a 2,800 TEU container ship to their owners on January 7, respectively.
Last year, HD KSOE successfully delivered a total of 144 ships. By ship type, these included 23 LNG carriers, 16 liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers, 81 container ships, 17 chemical tankers, 4 car carriers and ro-ro vessels, and 3 LNG bunkering vessels.
In 2025, HD KSOE plans to deliver 139 vessels. It is worth mentioning that most of the vessels undertaken since ship prices started to rise in 2022 will be delivered this year, so profitability is expected to improve. This is because most of the ship orders are in the form of heavy-end contracts with low prepayments and high delivery payments.
HD KSOE has taken orders for 44 LNG carriers in 2022, making it the world’s most ordered LNG carrier builder. This year, most of the vessels HD KSOE plans to deliver are high value-added and environmentally friendly ships, including 26 LNG carriers, 14 LPG carriers, 2 ethane carriers, 1 liquefied carbon dioxide carrier, 40 container ships, and 50 chemical tankers.
Exports are expected to rise 2.6 percent this year from last year to $700 billion (about 1,033.3 trillion won), with exports of semiconductors, ships, and the bio-health industry projected to increase, according to a report titled “Export Outlook for 2025 and the Market Situation in Various Regions,” by the Trade and Investment Research Center of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA).
A South Korean shipbuilding industry official said: “The shipbuilding industry’s export growth trend is likely to continue due to an increase in orders for environmentally friendly and high-value-added LNG ships and an increase in exports of shipbuilding equipment. In North America, demand for LNG ships and fossil fuel ships will also increase due to Trump’s re-election.”