South Korean shipbuilding company Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) has won an order for an LNG carrier duo, according to a report from the country’s news agency Yonhap.
As informed, the order has been placed by the yard’s compatriot shipping company Korea Line Corp. for two 7,500 cubic meters LNG carriers.
Under the terms of the deal, the value of which is yet to be disclosed, the ships are slated for delivery by the end of 2019 and are intended to transport liquefied natural gas between local ports.
The order comes amid stabilization in the shipbuilding industry that has helped SHI cut its operating loss by around 90 percent in 2016. The shipbuilder also reduced its net loss by KRW 1 billion, which represents an improvement of 88.5 percent.
At the end of 2016 the conglomerate’s net loss stood at KRW 138.8 million, against a net loss of KRW 1.2 billion booked in 2015.
Due to anticipated recovery of the shipbuilding industry during 2017, the shipbuilder decided to raise its orderbook goal to USD 6 billion, from last year’s USD 5.3 billion target, after winning a major order to build a large offshore platform at the beginning of the year worth USD 1.3 billion. The turnaround is in particular expected in the LNG carrier sector and FSRUs, according to SHI, with up to 30 LNGC orders forecast to be placed on annual basis from 2017.
The shipbuilder had a good start of 2017 reporting a total new order amount of USD 1.5 billion. SHI’s order backlogs as of March 31, 2017 on delivery basis totals in USD 26.5 billion, the company’s data show. These are dominated by tankers, 34 of them, followed by 15 LNG carriers and 10 drilling rigs, among other units.
World Maritime News Staff