French membrane containment system designer GTT has beaten its LNG carrier order and LNG dual-fuelled vessel figures for the whole of 2021 with a record order haul in the first half of 2022.
The company booked orders to design the tanks for 88 LNG carriers in the first half of this year - with 24 of these vessels being part of QatarEnergy’s huge newbuilding program against 68 vessels in 2021. Delivery dates on the ships range from the third quarter of 2024 into the April to June period of 2027.
Speaking on a results call GTT chairman and chief executive Philippe Berterottiere highlighted the new liquefaction capacity due onstream and Europe’s emergence as an LNG buyer for the long term which will support the demand for LNG shipping.
Berterottiere added that GTT is also “well positioned” to capture orders from vessel renewals.
He said 165 LNG steam turbine vessels are now over 15 years old offering double the cargo boil-off of modern ships.
As a result, the chief said GTT was releasing a mid-year forecast on vessel orders and taking a “more aggressive view” on this.
He said GTT now estimates it will receive orders for between 400 and 450 LNG carriers during the next 10 years, up from 330 to 360 forecast six months ago.
GTT’s presentation detailed that in the period to mid-2031 the company also forecasts orders for between 25 and 40 VLECs, 10 new floating storage and regasification units and five floating LNG (FLNG) production units.
In addition, GTT said it had also notched up 38 orders for LNG dual-fuelled vessels in the first half of this year topping the 27-ship total for the whole of 2021. These vessels which will deliver from first quarter 2024 through into the same period of 2026.
In first half of 2022 GTT said 65% of large vessel orders were for LNG dual-fuel vessels, up from 5% in 2021. The company said this was largely driven by orders from container ships and car carriers.
GTT now has a market share of over 50% for containerships of over 7,000-teu.
Berterottiere said the company has become “a solution of reference” for bunker tanks for containerships – a position it wants to expand further.
GTT reported a fall in net income for the first six months of this year down at EUR 63.7m from EUR 76.6m in the same period a year earlier.
First half revenue was down 12.7% at EUR 144.2m from EUR 165.3m in the same six months of 2021 as the company has yet to see the benefits of the increase in ordering from 2021.
But the company, which receives the bulk of its contractual payments on the delivery of vessels, is set to see its revenue climb to EUR 395m by 2023 and EUR 445m by 2024 based on the current orderbook.
The company also guided on its exposure to Russian contracts where it has a total of EUR 129m worth of revenue exposure to Russian contracts, EUR 31m of which is due to be recognised in 2022.
GTT said taking into account some delays in ships construction schedules during the first half of the year, the group is now targeting the lower half of the outlook range in terms of February 2022 guidance which estimated revenue in the range of EUR 290m to EUR 320m.
