Seven shipping lines from South Korea joined forces with local shipbuilding companies to try and win an order from Korea Gas Corp for the build of six LNG carriers.
Kogas, that will be importing 2.8 million mt per year of the chilled gas from the Sabine Pass terminal in the US for 20 years starting in 2017, issued a tender recently looking for carriers to be built, reports Platts.
A Kogas official said that shippers have formed partnerships with local shipbuilders, submitting applications for a formal bid.
Major names mentioned by the official were Korea Line and Hyundai LNG Shipping who both formed partnerships with DSME, while Glovis and KSS Line joined forces with HHI. SK Shipping partnered up with HHI as well as SHI, with Samsung Heavy Industries also teaming up with H-Line Shipping. Pan Ocean chose Hanjin Heavy Industries to submit their application for the newbuildings together.
Carriers will have the capacity of 174,000 cbm each, and two of the six newbuildings will use the KC-1 LNG cargo containment system of corrugated membrane type developed by Kogas together with major shipyards in South Korea.
Final results of the tender are scheduled for announcement on October 24, according to the official.
LNG World News Staff, October 7, 2014; Image: Kogas