Hanwha Ocean (formerly Daewoo Shipbuilding & & Marine Engineering) announced on March 25 that it has signed a contract for the construction of eight liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers with an Oceania Regional Shipping Corporation, with a total order value of KRW 2.439 trillion (approx. US$1.818 billion) and a single unit cost of about US$227 million. The new shipbuildings will be built by Hanwha Ocean Geoje Shipyard and are expected to be delivered by the end of January 2028.
This is the 3rd official shipbuilding contract announced by Hanwha Ocean this year, and including this latest order, Hanwha Ocean has acquired 12 new ship orders valued at US$2.35 billion this year. The ships include 8 LNG carriers, 2 Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC) and 2 Very Large Liquid Ammonia Carriers (VLAC) by ship type.
According to Korean media reports, this contract for the shipbuilding of eight LNG carriers is part of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for 12 LNG carriers that Hanwha Ocean signed with Middle Eastern shipping companies on February 29 this year, and further contract details are being finalized for another four units. According to industry sources, the 12 LNG carriers are from QatarEnergy, the state-owned energy company of Qatar. According to the slot reservation agreement signed in 2020, Hanwha Ocean has 14 reserved slots, which is only two slots short of the number of agreements that have been made public so far.
It is understood that QatarEnergy officially started the second phase of the “Hundred Ships Program” in 2023, and together with another four new LNG carriers to be confirmed by Hanwha Ocean, QatarEnergy will order a total of 44 LNG carriers from the three major South Korean shipbuilders in this phase, exceeding the first forecast of 40.Respectively, 17 LNG carriers from HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), a shipbuilding subsidiary of HD Hyundai, 15 from Samsung Heavy Industries and 12 from Hanwha Ocean, each with a capacity of 174,000 m3.
Among them, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries is the first shipbuilding company to sign a shipbuilding contract in October 2023 for the second phase of the “Hundred Ships Program”. The cost of a single LNG carrier is about US$ 230 million, which is the largest single contract order in the Korean shipbuilding industry to date, and is scheduled to be delivered to the shipowner by the second half of 2029 in sequence.
Samsung Heavy Industries announced on February 6 this year to obtain QatarEnergy “Hundred Ships Program” the second phase of the 15 LNG carriers large order, the cost of a single unit of about US$ 230 million, is expected to be delivered by October 2028 one after another. Hanwha Ocean has announced orders for single unit cost of about US$227 million, the price difference between the three shipbuilding enterprises per unit is not significant.
At this stage, QatarEnergy has already finalized the shipowners for the 44 new LNG carriers. 17 LNG carriers built by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and 8 units announced by Hanwha Ocean are owned by Qatargas shipping company Nakilat, while 15 units built by Samsung Heavy Industries will be owned by three shipowners, including 6 units by Shandong Ocean, 6 units by China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES), and 3 units by Malaysian Shipping Group (MISC).
