The contract is the shipbuilder’s largest ever surpassing the deal it inked in July last year with Taiwan’s Evergreen Marine for sixteen methanol-powered container ships worth $3 billion.
In a stock exchange disclosure SHI said that the buyer was from the Middle East region.
The shipowner behind the order is believed to be QatarEnergy which has a massive newbuilding programme underway at South Korean and Chinese yards. It was reported to have ordered eight LNG carriers at Hudong-Zhonghua in mid-January although it did not confirm the order.
The new 174,000 cu metre ships to be constructed by the SHI shipbuilder are scheduled to be sequentially delivered to the shipowner by October 2028.
With this contract, Samsung Heavy Industries’ total orders for this year amount to 17 ships, with the 15 LNG carriers and two very large ammonia carriers (VLACs), and has total sales for the year of $4.49 billion according to the regulatory filing.
“As we have secured a significant amount of work with this large-scale order, our policy of selective order-taking centred on profitability will be further strengthened,” SHI said in a statement.
In September 2023 QatarEnergy placed an order for 17 LNG carriers at rival South Korean yard HD Hyundai Heavy Industries worth around $3.9 billion. The orders brought its LNG carrier orderbook to 77 vessels.
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