French liner giant has extended its dual-fuel containership orderbook with an order for six vessels priced at KRW 841bn ($720m) at Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea.

SHI announced on Thursday that it had netted the newbuildings but did not name the contracting party, simply describing it as “a European company”. Those working closely on the business said the ships have been contracted by CMA CGM.

In a filing, the shipyard said it will deliver the vessels, which will be able to run on LNG or conventional marine fuels, by November 2024 but gave no details of their capacity.

The ships are to be fitted with 6,000-cbm GTT-designed membrane-type LNG bunker tanks.

A spokesman for CMA CGM told TradeWinds: “We are not commenting this news.”

Pioneer

CMA CGM has been a pioneer on LNG dual-fuelling.

In November 2017, the company contracted nine ultra-large containerships in China that are now trading and bunkering LNG supplied under a contract with energy major TotalEnergies.

These latest six newbuildings at SHI bump up the company’s existing orderbook to 28 vessels and marks a shift from Chinese to South Korean shipbuilders.

In April, CMA CGM splashed out an estimated $2.3bn on 22 vessels at three Chinese yards.

It booked six 15,000-teu boxships at Jiangnan Shipyard and a further six of 13,000-teu at Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group).

These 12 vessels are being built as dual-fuel ships that can run on LNG.

The liner company also contracted 10 panamax boxships of 5,500 teu each at Beihai Shipyard. But these vessels will run on very low-sulphur fuel oil.

At the time, CMA CGM said: "This order aims at accommodating market growth."

South Korean press reports said that, with this order, SHI has won orders totalling $7.8bn to date this year. This is 86% of the shipbuilder's $9.1bn annual sales target.

The yard looks set to scoop more business shortly on LNG. TradeWinds has reported that SHI is in talks with Russian shipowner Sovcomflot (SCF Group) and NYK Line on a number of LNG newbuildings, which are being negotiated against charters with Russia’s gas company Novatek.

Earlier this week, rival compatriot Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering announced it had smashed its annual order target for 2021.