Qatar is a small country located in the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula, but it has the world's third-largest natural gas reserves and is one of the richest countries in the world.
In an effort to boost its liquefied natural gas (LNG) market share, Qatar proposed an ambitious ship purchase plan in 2019 in three phasesA total of 150 LNG carriers have been ordered to support the development of gas fields in northern QatarThis is known in the industry as the "100 Ships Plan".
As soon as this plan was released, it caused competition in the global shipbuilding industryIn particular, the two largest shipbuilding giants in Asia, China and South Korea.
In 2022, the first batch of orders will be launchedSouth Korea's three shipyards received a total of 54 orders, while China's Hudong-Zhonghua Group won orders for 12 LNG vessels.
At present, Qatar has opened the second phase of orders in 2024Hudong-Zhonghua is expected to take 16 ships 2710,000 square meters of ultra-large LNG ship orderAt that time, the total order price of the ship will exceed 34 billion yuan!
This is a major breakthrough for China's shipbuilding industry in the field of LNG ships, and it is also a challenge to the Korean shipbuilding industry.
LNG carriers are the crown jewel of the shipbuilding industry, because its manufacturing technology is extremely difficult, and it needs to liquefy natural gas at low temperature and then transport, requiring the natural gas in the hull to be in a liquid state of minus 163 degrees Celsius to reduce evaporation losses.
And, most importantly, the manufacture of LNG ships is a technically and financially intensive projectThere are strict requirements for the comprehensive strength of shipping enterprises.
I have to admit that South Korea is the "big brother" in the field of LNG ships, since the nineties of the last century, it has occupied the vast majority of the global LNG ship market, and the technical level has been far ahead.
And China is a rising star in LNG shipsSince 2008, it broke the monopoly of South Korea and launched domestic LNG ships, quickly catch up with the pace of South Korea, and constantly improve independent research and development capabilities.
At present, the world's largest LNG ship is a Q-MAX LNG ship jointly developed by South Korea's Samsung Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding, with a total length of 345 meters and a width of 55 meters, equipped with X-DF engines and a reliquefaction system, with 5 cargo tanks, which can minimize the sloshing pressure, and its cabin capacity is 2640,000 cubic meters, which can carry about 16400 million cubic meters of natural gas is equivalent to the annual gas consumption of a medium-sized city.
The Q-MAX LNG vessel was a request made by QatarEnergy in 2005 and is specifically designed to transport natural gas from Qatar to Europe and the United States.
However,Just last year, China's Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group broke the monopoly of South KoreaA super-large LNG ship larger than the Q-MAX LNG ship has been designed, with a staggering 2710,000 cubic meters, which can carry about 17100 million cubic meters of natural gas, which is 4 more than the Q-MAX type LNG carrier3%。
At the same time, it has obtained the AIP (Principle Approval Certificate) issued by four classification societies at the same time: ABS, LR, BV and DNVIt is the world's largest LNG carrier design to date.
This kind of ultra-large LNG ship is constantly innovated and independently developed by Hudong-Zhonghua according to market demand, without learning from any foreign solutions. Not only does it have a large cabin capacity, but it also has excellent ship-to-shore compatibility, which can be loaded and unloaded at different terminals, which greatly improves the flexibility of transportation.
At present, the second phase of Qatar's "100 Ships Plan" has been basically finalized, and South Korea's three major shipping companies have won a total of 64 LNG ship orders, with a total value of about 14.7 billion US dollars. Among them, 17 ships are shipbuilding marine, 15 are Samsung Heavy Industries, and 12 are Hanwha marine.
At first glance, South Korean shipbuilders seem to have won a big game, with a significant order volume and total value. However, a closer look reveals that the profit margin of this order is not as lucrative as imagined.
Due to the soaring price of raw materials, the price of LNG ships has been significant in the past few years and has now reached 2$6.5 billion. However, the unit price of South Korean shipbuilders winning the bid this time is generally lower than the average market priceAmong them, the unit price of shipbuilding, marine and Samsung Heavy Industries is only 2$2.9 billion, which means that each ship will earn about $36 million less.
So, why did South Korean shipping companies win orders at such a low level?
According to the analysis of industry insiders, the main reason is that South Korean shipping companies are facing fierce competition from Chinese shipping companies.
In the past few years, Chinese shipbuilding companies have risen rapidly in the field of LNG ship construction, with continuous improvement of R&D technology and increasingly obvious cost advantages. In order to seize market share, South Korean shipbuilders have to lower ** in order to get more orders.
For Qatar, of course, the lower the better, and it also hopes to be more competitive in the international market by lowering the price of ships and reducing its LNG transportation costs.
Speaking of which, it is necessary to talk about the core technology of LNG ships.
In the field of LNG ship manufacturing, the welding and production technology of Yinwa Steel has been monopolized by the French GTT company for many years. Chinese shipbuilders want to build LNG ships, either buy patents or make a detour.
In 2017, Baosteel Special Steel broke this situation and successfully developed LNG marine Yinwa alloy, which was recognized by China Classification Society. This means that China has become the second country after France to master this core technology!
This breakthrough is significant, not only saving huge costs for the construction of Chinese LNG ships, but more importantly, breaking the technological monopoly of foreign enterprises.
And this is also an important symbol of the rise of China's shipbuilding industry. China's shipbuilding share has ranked first in the world for 14 consecutive years, and it has maintained a leading edge in the number of shipbuilding completions, new orders and hand-held orders.
These achievements are inseparable from the continuous technological innovation of China's shipbuilding enterprises. In the future, China's shipbuilding industry will continue to maintain its development momentum and become a real leader in the world. The development of China's shipbuilding industry will make greater contributions to China's economic development.
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