Danish shipowner Celsius Shipping has been making fresh enquiries at yards in South Korea on LNG carrier newbuildings
The company is understood to be scouting for up to four berths but is said to be “very tight-lipped” about its intentions for the vessels and how it plans to deploy them.
“We still have growth ambitions within LNG and constantly monitor opportunities, short and long term,” Celsius chairman Jeppe Jensen told TradeWinds when asked about the company's latest interest in LNG newbuildings.
Right timing
In December, shortly after the delivery of the first of its four speculatively ordered LNG carriers, Jensen hinted at more.
“It has never been the intention that we would just have these four vessels and that’s it,” he said.
He added that the company had built up a team to handle its LNG interests and is committed to ordering more newbuildings when it feels the time and economics are right.
Sinokor berth shopping?
Earlier this month, brokers linked Celsius to the fourth, 174,000-cbm X-DF berth reserved by Sinokor Merchant Marine at Samsung Heavy Industries in 2019.
Sinokor is understood to have paid its deposit on the first of these ships. But market talk has been swirling as to whether all four berths are now being marketed to other companies, with Sinokor offering out the later-delivering trio of berths and SHI marketing the first slot.
But Jensen denied that Celsius was looking at these newbuilding slots.
All fixed
Celsius broke into LNG in 2018, contracting four 180,000-cbm X-DF vessels at SHI during a wave of speculative ordering in the sector.
In August, the company locked away a first ship to trader Gunvor’s Clearlake Shipping on private terms. Brokers later said the period hire on the vessel was 12 to 14 months at a rate of about $60,000 per day.
In December, the company announced that it had fixed the remaining three vessels to US-based LNG producer Cheniere Energy on charters of up to 13.5 years.
To date, two of the ultra-eco design vessels, the Celsius Copenhagen (built 2020) and the Celsius Canberra (built 2021), have been delivered. A third, the Celsius Charlotte, is scheduled for handover in May, with the fourth due to be delivered to Cheniere in August.
Speaking in December shortly after the fixtures were announced, Jensen said that ordering uncommitted vessels had not earned the company any particular credit from charterers. He added that while Celsius would not rule out repeating this move it would be more careful in what it does next time.
