Idan Ofer’s Eastern Pacific Shipping has ended a decade-long order drought for a rare type of gas carrier.
The company has booked four dual-fuel 60,000-cbm LPG carriers at a Chinese shipyard in a deal worth around $340m.
The so-called large LPG carrier (LGC) is employed on very specific trades and little more than a handful of such ships exist in the trading fleet of any owner today.
Gas players said Eastern Pacific had contracted state-owned CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding to build the LGC series for delivery between 2027 and 2028.
The company is said to be paying between $84m and $85m per vessel.
Officials at Eastern Pacific and Huangpu Wenchong declined to comment.
One shipbuilding observer said he was surprised that Eastern Pacific had placed an order for the ship type as he thought the “species of this size of LPG ships are dying”.
No newbuilding contract has been made for a long time and there are fewer than two dozen ships of this type on the water.
Gas players said the 60,000-cbm LPG ship is used for niche trades. They operate in South America, with some activity in transatlantic routes, and are also used for long-haul ammonia transport.
“An LGC has always been the largest ammonia carrier due to infrastructure and trading restrictions,” said one shipping source.
“But the future ammonia trade really looks different … these new 60,000-cbm vessels may be used to fill a gap or a transition period.”
TradeWinds understands that the global fleet for LGCs stands at 21 and the oldest four vessels were built in 2003.
Latsco Shipping of Greece is believed to be the last company to have ordered the ship type. It ordered two LGCs in early 2015 at Hyundai Heavy Industries for $70m each.
It is suggested that Eastern Pacific may have ordered the four 60,000-cbm gas carriers as replacement vessels. The company currently owns three HHI-built LGCs — the 60,200-cbm Helsinki, Denver and Tokyo (all built 2009).
It bought the trio from Neu Seeschiffahrt in 2005 for a reported price of about $45m per ship. VesselsValue shows the market value of these LGCs to be around $57m each.
Eastern Pacific is one of the most active companies in the shipbuilding market.
It is estimated to have over 120 newbuildings worth more than $10bn on its orderbook, including container ships, pure car/truck carriers, very large ammonia carriers, ultra-large ethane carriers, suezmax tankers, newcastlemax bulkers and LNG carriers.
Eastern Pacific has close to 190 trading vessels.
