Greece’s Navios Group is bumping up its growing fleet with its first LNG dual-fuel container ship newbuildings.
It is said to be close to signing up to six 7,700-teu vessels worth $726m with South Korea’s HJ Shipbuilding & Construction (HJSC) — formerly Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction.
The deal is a first for the shipowner and the reborn Hanjin Heavy.
Shipbuilding sources said a letter of intent was signed a few months ago and talks are now at the “finalising stage”.
“The official contract will be inked imminently,” said one source.
Officials at HJ Shipbuilding declined to comment, citing contract confidentiality. Navios did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In an interview with TradeWinds at Posidonia, Angeliki Frangou, chief executive of Navios Maritime Holdings and spin-off Navios Maritime Partners, said that the group would look to ships that run LNG or other fuels based on the needs of its customers.
“What we’re doing is what our clients want,” she told TradeWinds at the company’s offices in Piraeus, before talk of the container ship order emerged. “We’re a provider of services.”
The sources said Navios will order four firm vessels with options for two additional ships. They added that HJSC is due to deliver the firm quartet in 2025.
Navios is said to be paying about $121m each for the vessels.
It is the first time Navios has contracted LNG dual-fuel ships, but it has 14 conventionally fuelled newbuildings on order in South Korea and China.
K Shipbuilding in Chinhae is building four 115,000-dwt aframax product carriers, while Zhejiang-based Zhoushan Changhong Shipbuilding is constructing 10 units of 5,500 teu each.
Navios’ boxships order is HJSC’s first LNG dual-fuel newbuilding contract.
The yard obtained approval in principle for a 7,700-teu LNG dual-fuel container ship from Lloyd’s Register in April.
HJSC said the ship is 272 metres long and has a cruise speed of 22 knots. It will be equipped with a 6,000-cbm LNG tank that features GTT’s Mark III membrane system.
HJSC was formed in 2021 when a consortium led by civil engineering and construction company Dongbu Corp officially became the major shareholder, with more than 66% of shares after acquiring a stake from state-owned Korea Development Bank.
The renamed yard sealed its first newbuilding contract at the end of last year: an order for four conventionally fuelled 5,500-teu boxships from Hamburg asset and investment manager MPC Capital for delivery from 2023.
In March, HJSC was contracted by Oslo-listed MPC Container Ships to build two methanol-ready, 5,500-teu vessels worth $144.4m in total, for early 2024 delivery.
All six 5,500-teu newbuildings have been designed to be converted to dual-fuel operation with methanol. Israeli liner company Zim has chartered them for seven years.
