Place an order for yourself! Hanhua Ocean undertakes 2 LNG ship orders

Recently, South Korea's Hanwha Marine announced that it has signed a construction contract with its shipping subsidiary Hanwha Shipping LLC for two LNG carriers, with a contract amount of 732.2 billion Korean won (approximately 505 million US dollars, 3.684 billion yuan) and a single ship cost of approximately 252.5 million US dollars. The delivery is scheduled for September 30, 2027.
This is also the second batch of new ship orders undertaken by Hanhua Ocean this year. Previously, on January 22, the company announced that it had taken on an order for two 93000 cubic meter Very Large Liquid Ammonia Carriers (VLACs) from Greek shipowner Alpha Gas, with a total contract amount of 331.2 billion Korean won (approximately 249 million US dollars), scheduled for delivery by the end of 2027.
So far this year, Hanhua Ocean has received 4 new ship orders worth 754 million US dollars (approximately 5.5 billion yuan). In 2024, Hanhua Ocean undertook 41 new ship orders worth 8.11 billion US dollars (approximately 58.7 billion yuan), which is 2.3 times the order amount of 3.52 billion US dollars received in 2023.
Hanhua Shipping is a shipping subsidiary established by Hanhua Marine in April last year, with Hanhua Marine's US subsidiary as the main body, to play the role of an environmental protection and digital ship technology verification platform. It provides marketing and ocean services to help Hanhua Marine enter the shipping industry.
Hanhua Ocean stated that from the perspective of the shipowner, once a new ship is ordered and delivered, it will be used for more than 20 years, making it difficult to find a pioneer (First Mover) in the practical application of new technology operations in the maritime industry. Hanhua Marine plans to order new ships using environmental protection and digital technology through its own shipping subsidiary, and promote their application in the shipping industry through various empirical methods. Based on this, it aims to provide the world's highest level of environmentally friendly ships.
It is reported that Hanhua Marine is aiming to challenge zero carbon emissions and is promoting research and development centered on ammonia fuel powered ships. Establishing its own shipping subsidiary is one of the measures taken by Hanhua Group to assist Hanhua Ocean. When Hanhua Group needs environmentally friendly ships, it can order them from its own subsidiary to fully leverage the synergies of the acquisition.
The South Korean industry believes that Hanwha Marine will launch environmentally friendly fuel transport ships and independently developed zero carbon powered ships through Hanwha Shipping. Hanhua Ocean emphasizes that the purpose of establishing a maritime subsidiary is to verify and ensure the practicality and stability of the environmental and digital technologies being developed by the company's ships, and to establish positive cooperative relationships with customers
The South Korean industry has stated that by 2025, the demand for LNG ships with competitive advantages in the South Korean shipbuilding industry will further increase. According to the calculation of the South Korean industry, by 2025, South Korean shipping companies will undertake a total of 88 LNG ship orders, a significant increase from the 51 orders in 2023 and the predicted 49 orders in 2024, which is the highest value since undertaking 119 orders in 2022.
In 2025, LNG hub projects being promoted by various countries will boost the demand for LNG ships. This is because with the increase of LNG export hub stations, LNG production also increases, and the demand for transporting LNG ships also expands.
A relevant person in the South Korean shipbuilding industry said, "The global LNG terminal project that will be completed in 2029 has a scale of 52 MTPA (1 MPA=1 million tons per year), second only to 2026 (62 MTPA), which leads the super cycle. However, based on the current orders held by shipbuilding companies, only 17 LNG ships will be delivered in 2029, which is far from enough to meet demand