Ren Yuanlin, executive chairman of Yangzijiang, revealed to Seatrade Global that the shipyard is looking to construct a pair of 80,000 cu m LPG carriers, and the deal is expected to be sealed “within this year.”
“Demand for LPG vessels of such capacity is not very high at the moment, but demand for LNG especially in China is on the rise,” Ren said.
Last week, Yangzijiang announced an order win to construct its first pair of LNG carriers for JHW Engineering & Contracting Limited, a subsidiary of Jaccar Holdings that owns Evergas. The two ships are worth $135m combined and scheduled to be delivered in 2017.
Ren said that the construction of dry bulk carriers will continue to form the core daily operations of the yard, while the sizes of containership newbuildings are expected to get bigger.
Yangzijiang is already bidding for deals to construct 14,000 teu containerships. Its orderbook currently consists of fourteen 10,000 teu containerships.
Meanwhile, Singapore-listed Yangzijiang has delivered higher net profit in 2014. Profit for the financial year ended 31 December 2014 went up by 13% to RMB3.48bn ($555.07m) compared to RMB3.08bn in 2013.
Revenue for the year also increased 7% year-on-year to RMB15.35bn due mainly to higher contract value of 10,000 teu containerships delivered during the year.
As at 27 February, the group’s outstanding shipbuilding orderbook stood at 118 vessels with a total value of $4.75bn. Last year, the group received 41 effective shipbuilding contracts with a total value of $1.8bn.
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Seatrade, a trading name of Informa Markets (UK) Limited. Add Seatrade Maritime News to your Google News feed.
