China is leading the world in building liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers with the orders accounting for over 30 percent of the global market share.
Since the beginning of 2022, the cost of a mainstream 174,000 cubic meter LNG carrier has risen from 190 million U.S. dollars to 240 million U.S. dollars. While orders for conventional carrier types such as container ships and bulk carriers have declined to varying degrees globally, LNG carrier orders have bucked the trend.
On Dec 15, a naming ceremony for a large LNG carrier was held at a shipbuilding base on Shanghai's Changxing Island. Thanks to an improved pace of building, the 174,000-cubic-meter LNG carrier named "Wudang" was delivered 47 days ahead of schedule.
"This is a 174,000-cubic-meter LNG carrier featuring four characteristics: excellent comprehensive performance, good performance under low temperature, light weight of the empty carrier, and good route adaptation," said Wang Lei, director assistant of the LNG Technology Research Institute of Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding under China State Shipbuilding Corporation.
Due to its strong flammability, liquefied natural gas is easy to cause explosion once it is leaked during transportation. LNG carriers, therefore, have always been built with high technology and by tackling high difficulties, and are of high added value. In 2022, the European energy crisis drove the rapid growth of LNG carrier demand. Global shipowners ordered 170 LNG carriers, a record high and 95 percent more than for the whole year of 2021.
"In 2022, Hudong Zhonghua received 38 LNG carrier orders, ranking second in the global shipyards that build single type of the carrier, accounting for more than 20 percent of the world's total. In addition to domestic shipowners, we also have European shipowners, Japanese shipowners and especially the Middle East shipowners whose number has been increasing rapidly recently. The LNG carriers for export accounted for less than 50 percent of our total in the beginning," said Chen Jun, general manager of Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding.
In 2008, Hudong Zhonghua broke the monopoly of some countries including South Korea and built and delivered China's first large LNG carrier, becoming the first shipyard capable of building LNG carriers in China.
In March 2022, Jiangnan Shipyard, also owned by China State Shipbuilding Corporation, received an order for two LNG carriers from Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, becoming the second domestic shipbuilding company to enter the market of large LNG carrier construction. Later, Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company, also owned by China State Shipbuilding Corporation, received an order to become the country's third. South Korean shipbuilders once held nearly 90 percent of the market, but now domestic shipyards are catching up.
"In 2022, Chinese shipyards received new orders for 8.92 million cubic meters of LNG carriers, about 10 times more than that in 2021. These orders account for 31 percent of the world's total, up from 7 percent in 2021, indicating a significant growth in the market share we occupy," said Chen Jinhai, chief analyst of the transportation sector of Tianfeng Securities Co., Ltd.
Source: CCTV
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