Gas shipowner and trader Petredec has ordered up to six LPG-fuelled VLGCs of a new size at Jiangnan Shipyard in China in a deal estimated to be worth more than $460m.
The company has signed contracts to build three 93,000-cbm LPG carriers with dual-fuel LPG propulsion for delivery in January, March and May 2023, the company said.
The owner also has options for a further trio of newbuildings with handover dates within the second and third quarters of that year.
Super size
No price was given for the ships, which are believed to be priced in the mid to high-$70m range.
The newbuildings are the largest VLGCs contracted to date.
They will be the first to be built to Jiangnan’s new "Panda Class 93k cbm design". This features the shipbuilder's patented "Brilliance Technology", which aims to improve hull efficiency and lower consumption.
The yard is understood to have increased the capacity of its 91,000-cbm design, while still maintaining the same dimensions.
The vessels will be constructed with deck-mounted LPG bunker tanks, but it is not yet clear how large these will be.
The newbuildings will also be fitted with a shaft generator to use LPG to provide auxiliary power at sea.
Next chapter
Group chief executive Giles Fearn said: “We are proud to have ordered the next generation of VLGCs, which marks an important step for both us and the industry towards decarbonisation by emitting 30% less CO2 than the previous generation of 84,000-cbm ships burning LSFO [low-sulphur fuel oil].”
Fearn said the newbuildings position Petredec as “the pre-eminent owner of VLGCs with dual-fuel LPG”.
“We are excited for what this next chapter in the company’s evolution will bring,” he said.
Company fleet director Phillip Harwood said Petredec has always been "at the forefront of new technology".
"We are convinced that using LPG as bunker fuel in the MAN ES LGIP engine is the best contributor to achieving the targeted 40% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030," he said.
Petredec is now the second-largest VLGC owner after BW LPG.
The company’s fleet boasts an average age of 3.5 years, which it claims is the lowest of its peers.
The Singapore-based company has 21 VLGCs on the water and these latest orders will bring its fleet up to 24 vessels.
Repeat customer
Petredec is a regular at Jiangnan, where it has been ordering vessels since 2007.
These include four scrubber-fitted “R” Class, 84,000-cbm LPG carriers that delivered from Jiangnan earlier this year.
In total, Petredec, which has made a tradition of naming its vessels after racecourses or winning racehorses, has ordered a total of 19 LPG and ethylene vessels, making them Jiangnan’s number one builder of ships in this sector.
Petredec transports more than 10m tonnes of LPG annually with a fleet of over 60 owned and chartered vessels. The company is also developing a wholesale, logistics and downstream businesses across Africa and the Indian Ocean.
