South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) has received its first order this year for two liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers.
On January 29, 2019, SHI revealed it signed a deal worth KRW 419.9 billion (around USD 376 million) for two 180,000 cbm vessels with Denmark’s Celsius Tankers.
The vessels are scheduled for delivery in 2021.
As informed, the LNG carriers will be fitted with SHI-developed eco-friendly and smart ship technologies, enabling the vessels to comply with the upcoming environmental regulations. In addition, the new vessel technologies are expected to significantly increase energy saving, thereby further increasing the operational efficiency of vessels.
SHI has set USD 7.8 billion new order target for 2019, up 24 percent over the last year’s orders as the newbuilding market is picking up all over the world, particularly for LNG ships and containerships.
This year, it is forecast that US and Qatar LNG exporters will likely make final investment decisions (FID) to build new LNG export plants. As such, the demand for eco-friendly energy, LNG, becomes stronger, presumably increasing the number of new orders to up to 293 by 2023, including 69 in 2019, according to Clarksons Research.
“In order to achieve our 2019 new order target, all the divisions, including Engineering, R&D, Marketing, Production, etc. do everything possible to develop technology, reduce costs, and enhance customer satisfaction,” an official from SHI said.
“We will make sure to improve both the quality and quantity of new orders by clinching deals for high-value added vessels with higher profitability such as LNG carrier,” the official added.