Rapidly expanding Celsius Shipping has an ambition to grow its LNG carrier fleet to 20 newbuildings by 2025.
Speaking to TradeWinds after announcing a four-ship charter deal with Gunvor Group's Clearlake Shipping on Monday, chairman Jeppe Jensen said Celsius works on its newbuildings from project to project.
"We have an expansion plan and we want to grow in LNG, and we want to have the most advanced and green fleet in the space," he said.
"But we had a target when we started LNG. We said we want to have 20 newbuildings by 2025 and that is still our internal target and what we are working towards."
Celsius has four chartered out trading LNG carriers and has now confirmed it has ordered another quartet at Samsung Heavy Industries, where the company built its first vessels, to back Gunvor's requirements.
Jensen said the outfit had been working on the Gunvor project for some time, revealing that the charters are firm, long-term deals.
He also said the slots for the vessels at SHI were ones the company was holding, following its previous orders at the yard, and not, according to market speculation, berths previously reserved by Sinokor Merchant Marine.
'Who isn't?'
Jensen said Celsius has an eight-ship LNG fleet, despite the company being linked to another two newbuildings announced by SHI and charters to BP.
He said the company is working on projects that will require additional shipping, but he added: "Who isn't?"
Of the company's four trading vessels, three are time-chartered out to Cheniere Energy. But Jensen said the first vessel — the 180,300-cbm Celsius Copenhagen (built 2020), which is on charter to Clearlake Shipping — is likely to be redelivered next year.
"We are looking at re-employment for that ship now and it could involve Gunvor or it could be somebody else," he said.
"We are not in a hurry, as we still have the coverage, but we are really open for business on that vessel."
Jensen pointed out that Celsius "started from scratch" on LNG and does not have any legacy assets that it needs to dispose of.
"We can expand with the newest toys available and this is what we're trying to do," he said.
Celsius is seeing a high volume of activity in the market, Jensen added, particularly from the charterers' side.
He sees concerns about the availability of ships, particularly from 2025, after which he believes it will be hard for owners to operate a steam-turbine vessel economically, or for energy companies to charter them.
