Samsung Heavy Industries Wins 1.6 Trillion Won in LNG and Crude Oil Tanker Orders, Already Surpassing Last Year’s Performance

[Financial News] Samsung Heavy Industries announced on the 14th that it had won orders for LNG (liquefied natural gas) carriers and crude oil tankers worth 1.6 trillion won.
Samsung Heavy Industries said it had signed contracts that day with shipowners from Oceania for four large LNG carriers worth $1 billion and two crude oil tankers worth $200 million. The total value is $1.2 billion, or 1.6476 trillion won.
Samsung Heavy Industries has now won orders for 18 LNG carriers this year alone. In particular, the four large LNG carriers ordered this time have a capacity of 200,000 cubic meters, larger than the standard 174,000-cubic-meter class.
Demand for LNG carriers is surging as the need to secure stable energy supplies and diversify supply chains becomes more pronounced amid instability in the Middle East. A total of 59 LNG carriers were ordered in the first half of this year, nearly matching the number ordered throughout last year.
This year, Samsung Heavy Industries has won orders for a total of 42 vessels, including LNG carriers, 14 crude oil tankers, four container ships, four gas carriers and two ethanol carriers. The orders are worth $7.3 billion. This not only far exceeds the company’s $5.7 billion order target for the year, but has already surpassed its $7.1 billion order performance in the merchant-ship segment last year.
The offshore division has also secured roughly half of its $8.2 billion order target. Samsung Heavy Industries has won orders for two floating liquefied natural gas production units (FLNGs) worth $4.4 billion. At the Gastech Exhibition & Conference, the world’s largest gas exhibition, taking place in Bangkok, Thailand, from the 14th through the 17th, the company is receiving certification for its FLNG design technology and aims to expand future orders.
The most notable development is the in-house development of a liquefaction system, an area in which the company had been highly dependent on overseas suppliers. Samsung Heavy Industries is scheduled to receive Approval in Principle (AiP) from American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and Lloyd’s Register (LR) for a conceptual design applying its independently developed natural-gas liquefaction system, SENSE, to the topsides of an FLNG.
Building on this, the company will partner with U.S. firms. On the 15th, it plans to sign a project service agreement (PSA) with JERA Americas, a subsidiary of Japan’s largest power utility, JERA, for a floating LNG storage and regasification unit (FSRU) project off the coast of Hawaii. On the 16th, it will sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with LNG developer Fulcrum LNG to target the FLNG market in five regions worldwide.
[email protected] Kim Yun-ho Reporter