On February 6, South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries announced on its official website that the company was officialSigned 15 ships with shipowners in the Middle EastContract for the construction of 40,000 cubic meters of large liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers, the total value of the order is 45,716 trillion won (about 34.)700 million US dollars, about 249 yuan5.7 billion yuan), the cost of a single ship is about 2US$300 million and is expected to be delivered to shipowners by October 2028.
This is the largest single contract ever signed by Samsung Heavy Industries, refreshing the company's July 2023 contract for a value of 39,593 trillion won (about 31 at the time.)US$300 million) for 16 16,000TEU methanol dual-fuel powered container ships. The container ship was ordered by Evergreen Shipping in Taiwan, China, and is scheduled to be delivered by December 2027.
Samsung Heavy Industries has not yet disclosed the owners behind the large order for 15 LNG carriers and other details. However, according to Yonhap News Agency and other South Koreas** and the cost of a single ship of the order, this order is likely to come from Qatar's state-owned energy company, Qatar Energy. At this stage, QatarEnergy is advancing the second phase of the "100 Ships Plan" large-scale LNG carrier project. As early as mid-January this year, it was reported that Samsung Heavy Industries had signed a shipbuilding contract with Qatar Energy for 15 LNG carriers. According to the slot reservation agreement signed in 2020, Samsung Heavy Industries has a reserved scale of 16 ships, which is similar to the number of ships it has reserved.
With the latest orders, Samsung Heavy Industries has secured 17 new ship orders worth $3.7 billion so far this year, which is almost half of last year's total orders for Samsung Heavy Industries. According to the ship type, it includes 15 LNG carriers and 2 ultra-large liquid ammonia carriers (VLAC).
In 2023, Samsung Heavy Industries will contract a total of 29 new ship orders worth US$8.3 billion, achieving 87% of the annual order target of US$9.5 billion. Earlier this year, Samsung Heavy Industries said it would not disclose its annual order target for 2024.
Since the second half of 2023, Samsung Heavy Industries has been in talks with QatarEnergy for the second phase of the "100 Ships Plan". The number of the two parties revealed in November 2023 is 6, and the cost of a single ship is about 2$200 million. If the above orders are confirmed to be related to QatarEnergy, it means that the final order size of Samsung Heavy Industries has doubled, and the number of orders for the second phase of QatarEnergy's "100 ships plan" may exceed the original plan of 40 ships.
It is understood that QatarEnergy will officially launch the second phase of the "100 Ships Plan" in 2023, and first signed a contract with HD Hyundai Group on October 26, 2023 for the construction of 17 LNG carriers, with an order value of about 52,511 trillion won (about $3.9 billion at the time), and the cost of a single ship was about 2US$300 million, which will be built by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries.
So far, Hanwha Marine is the only one of the three major shipbuilders in South Korea that has not announced the second phase of the "100 Ships Plan". According to the 2020 slot reservation agreement, Hanwha Marine has 14 reserved slots. If Hanwha Marine's order is placed as scheduled, Qatar Energy's 100 ships will be able to order nearly 50 new ships in the second phase of QatarEnergy's 100-ship program at South Korean shipyards alone.
Currently,Samsung Heavy Industries has more than 90 LNG carriers in hand, which is expected to have a positive impact on its future performance. On this basis, the company will further strengthen its profit-focused order screening strategy.
In addition to placing orders with Korean shipyards,QatarEnergy has signed a contract with Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Group, for eight 27Agreement for the construction of 10,000 cubic meter Q-MAX ultra-large LNG carriers, which is expected to be delivered between 2028 and 2029. The Q-MAX vessel is part of QatarEnergy's 100 vessels program and will primarily serve long-term transactions related to QatarEnergy's Northern Field expansion project, including transactions with Chinese customers.
According to Dragon Ship, the order was finalized at the end of last year, and the transaction has not yet been disclosed, but it has been revealed that the cost of a single ship may exceed 300 million US dollars, if this is the benchmark,Hudong-Zhonghua's order for eight new ships will be worth more than $2.4 billion
It is reported that in order to accelerate the energy transition and respond to the future vision and strategy of Qatar's LNG industry, Qatari LNG giant Qatar Gas (QATARGAS) has changed its name to Qatar Energy LNG (QATARENERGY LNG) and currently operates 14 LNG production lines in Ras Laffan, with an annual production capacity of about 77 million tons.
Qatar is the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, and the Northern Gas Field is the world's largest single gas field. QatarEnergy is significantly increasing LNG production from its northern gas fields, with the first phase of the expansion project (2025) increasing annual production capacity from 77 million tonnes to 1100 million tons, which will be increased to 1 in the second phase (2027).2.6 billion tons, with a project size of up to $40 billion.