Expansionist-minded Celsius Shipping is being linked to a fresh order for a pair of LNG carriers at Samsung Heavy Industries.
The vessels look set to boost the company’s fleet in this sector to 10 ships.
SHI said on Monday that it had won a KRW 461bn ($392m) order for two LNG newbuildings, which prices the vessels at $196m each.
The South Korean shipbuilder did not name the owner involved, referring to them as “an Oceanian shipper”.
The yard said the newbuildings are scheduled for delivery by September 2024.
Cheap options
Those following the LNG shipbuilding market named Celsius Shipping as the owner that placed the order at SHI by exercising options it already held at the yard group.
Market watchers said this would explain the comparatively cheap price on the newbuildings. Shipbuilders are currently quoting prices well above $200m for LNG carriers.
Celsius chairman Jeppe Jensen has been contacted about the latest order.
The Copenhagen-headquartered shipowner has plunged into LNG newbuildings this year, just as the last of its first haul of four speculatively-ordered vessels was delivered.
In early July, brokers said Celsius contracted three 180,000-cbm LNG carrier newbuildings priced at about $193m each at SHI.
On 27 July, SHI said it had won an order for one LNG carrier priced at $195.1m from an unnamed shipping company.
The yard said the vessel will be delivered by April 2024.
Brokers said Celsius had dived on LNG berths at the yard which had been vacated by Sinokor Merchant Marine, following the collapse of its four-ship order placed back in 2019.
The vessels are to be fitted with MAN Energy Solutions' new low-pressure, two-stroke gas engine ME-GA propulsion systems.
Growth spurt
Celsius has not responded to questions on any of these orders for the four vessels.
In December 2020 Jensen told TradeWinds the company planned to grow its gas fleet.
With its four trading vessels, the quartet of newbuildings signed in July and the two ships linked to the company today, Celsius looks to have built up its LNG fleet to 10 vessels.
In August, Celsius took delivery of its fourth SHI newbuilding from its first LNG order with the yard for four ships.
The 180,000-cbm Celsius Carolina and two of its sisterships are fixed to US producer Cheniere Energy for what Celsius said are periods of up to 13.5 years.
The first of the company’s LNG newbuildings, the Celsius Copenhagen (built 2020), was locked into a charter to trader Gunvor in August 2020 for 12 to 14 months at a rate of around $60,000 per day.
