Samsung Heavy Industries bags $235 million gas carrier deal

South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) has won a construction contract for two liquified petroleum gas (LPG)/ammonia carriers.

The deal, valued at KRW 315 billion ($235 million), was signed with undisclosed shipowners in the Oceania region.

Samsung said that the two VLACs are scheduled for delivery by the end of November 2027.

The company behind the order is believed to be George Economou’s TMS Cardiff Gas, which already has four eco-design VLACs on order at the yard, according to the data from VesselsValue. The 88,000 cbm newbuilds are all slated for delivery in 2027.

The shipbuilder is yet to disclose annual targets for this year. In 2023, the company secured $8.3 billion worth of orders inching close to its planned $9.5 billion target.

This is the second deal for the shipbuilder since the beginning of this year. In early January, SHI won a deal from Cedar LNG for the design, fabrication and delivery of a floating LNG production unit (FLNG). According to Samsung, the contract for the FLNG facility in North America is worth $1.5 billion.

The floating LNG facility is to be located on Haisla Nation-owned land in Kitimat, B.C., Canada, with the capacity to export three million tons per year of LNG.

Cedar LNG said that with the awarding of the EPC contract, the project is at an advanced stage of planning and development, with FID expected by the end of the first quarter of 2024.

Subject to a positive FID, onshore construction work for the project is estimated to commence as early as the second quarter of 2024, with the delivery of the FLNG and substantial completion expected in 2028.