Swiss trader Ineos is trying to burst through commercial barriers and develop the long-haul US-China ethane trade in a move that could break the logjam for very large ethane carrier (VLEC) construction.

This week saw the company sign up to a lone 95,000-cbm VLEC newbuilding — the world’s largest ethane carrier — to be built at Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co.

The contracting party is an ­affiliate of Jacques de Chateauvieux-controlled Jaccar Holdings for operation by sister company Evergas, which will not own the ship but will be the charterer’s counterparty. Several options are included in the deal with the yard.

No price has been announced for the newbuilding, which is an optimised version of an 85,000-cbm VLEC newbuilding series for Oriental Energy (Donghua) contracted in 2014 that was slashed from five to one.

“From now on, we will only go for 95,000-cbm VLECs,” French shipowner de Chateauvieux told TradeWinds. “We made some improvements on the design to increase the capacity of the vessel.”

On delivery in 2019, Ineos Shipping & Trading will use the ship to supply a new gas cracker that SP Chemicals is building in Taixing, eastern China. Evergas says this will be the first US shale gas-produced ethane to go to China.

De Chateauvieux says the 85,000-cbm VLEC, which was contracted at around $130m and features a three-lobed cargo tank designed by Jaccar affiliate JHW Engineering & Contracting and Germany’s Hartmann Group, will be delivered in late 2018 or early 2019.

TradeWinds understands that Evergas is looking for customers for the smaller VLEC even though Oriental Energy is contractually obliged to take it on long-term charter.

Charterer problems have stymied de Chateauvieux’s VLEC drive. US gas suppliers have been reluctant to sign a supply contract with companies in China, grounded in scepticism about the enforcement of contractual rights in case of a dispute. Another issue has been Chinese insistence on fixed rather than floating rates on the long-term deals.

“We looked at numerous different projects,” Evergas commercial vice president Andrew McPhail said. “But every time [a prospective trading counterparty of Evergas] would try to get an offtake contract against Chinese takers, the US side finally backed off.”

Jaccar was only able to pull the trigger on a renewed VLEC order after major customer Ineos decided to take the lion’s share of the risk of non-performance.

“The market may believe that Ineos is running a risk by being first movers, but SP Chemicals is a very solid company, and we believe Ineos are showing great entrepreneurship by concluding this deal with SP Chemicals,” McPhail told TradeWinds.