Celsius to take delivery of Gunvor-chartered LNG carrier

South Korea’s Samsung Heavy will deliver next month the first of four LNG tankers the yard is building for Denmark’s Celsius Shipping.

The Copenhagen-based firm chartered the 180,000-cbm Celsius Copenhagen to Clearlake Shipping, a unit of Swiss-based energy trader Gunvor.

The charter duration is said to be for one year but we could not confirm this by the time this article was published.

This will be the first LNG tanker for Celsius that already operates a fleet of 49 vessels. These include chemical and product tankers, LPG carriers, and container ships.

Celsius aims to take delivery of the three additional sister LNG vessels next year boosting its fleet to 53 ships.

Additionally, SHI is moving forward with the construction of these LNG carriers and hosted a keel laying ceremony for the fourth on Monday (pictured above).

The three remaining carriers are uncommitted and the owner is yet to find work for these vessels.

All of the newbuilds feature GTT’s Mark III Flex containment system with re-liquefaction capability.

To remind, Celsius Tankers, a unit of the Danish firm, ordered the first two ships in August 2018. The order had a price tag of about $185 million for each carrier.

Furthermore, the firm confirmed options for two additional sister vessels in January 2019.