Japanese shipowner Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) Line has signed a contract for six LNG carriers worth a total of ¥8Bn (US$1.2Bn) at China’s Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding against charters with China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC)
The order prices the ships at approximately US$201M each which is nearly US$5M more than the previous vessels for CNOOC at the yard, but cheaper than figures being paid for LNG newbuildings in South Korea. The co-owners of this project include CNOOC, China Merchants Group and NYK.
This is the shipbuilder’s third large-scale LNG ship order. In the first four months of 2022, Hudong-Zhonghua received a record 17 LNG ship orders, surpassing South Korean shipping companies and ranking first in the world.
China State Shipbuilding Corp (CSSC) general manager Yang Jincheng said CSSC is committed to building LNG carriers and emphasised that with large LNG ships as traction, the company will integrate the industrial chain and improve the construction capacity and level of LNG ships. Hudong-Zhonghua is a subsidiary of CSSC.
These six 174,000-m3 vessels are based on the world’s latest generation of Changheng series dual-fuel propulsion LNG ships independently developed and designed by Hudong-Zhonghua and tailored to the special needs of the project. These nearly 300-m long ships have a width of 46 m and cruise at 19 knots, featuring X-DF dual-fuel engines, and the latest double skeg lines. The newbuilds will be equipped with GTT’s NO96 Super+ cargo containment system.
CNOOC, China’s largest LNG importer, has ramped up purchases and is building a number of 270,000-m3 shoreside storage facilities in Jiangsu province. In December, CNOOC tied up a 20-year import deal LNG with US exporter Venture Global.
