Turkish shipowner PascoGas has been named as the company behind a fresh order for two very large ammonia carrier newbuildings at HD Hyundai Heavy Industries.
In a stock exchange announcement, HD HHI said it had secured an order from an “Oceania-based” shipping company for the two VLACs priced at KRW 317.2bn ($240.7m).
Brokers said the ships were priced at about $121m each.
The VLACs, which are believed to be for 88,000-cbm ships with shaft generators, are listed as due for delivery by the end of March 2027.
Established in 2019, PascoGas is a joint venture of several companies that originally included Turkish peer Negmar Denizcilik.
TradeWinds has tried several ways of contacting PascoGas but has been unable to get a response from the company.
However, several newbuilding sources and brokers said the company is the shipowner behind the order.
In early December, TradeWinds reported that Pascogas had signed letters of intent, or LOIs, with Hanwha Ocean for one 93,000-cbm VLAC and HD HHI for a pair of 88,000-cbm vessels.
The owner’s LOI with Hanwha Ocean is believed to be still in place.
At the time, the orders were expected to be concluded before the end of 2023.
Raft of VLAC orders
There has been a stream of VLAC newbuilding orders in the past few months with shipowners including Capital Gas, Eastern Pacific Shipping, Naftomar, Maersk Tankers and Dorian LPG among those signing up to tonnage.
There is also a queue of established shipowning names lining up for berths, with one shipyard numbering those searching at 20.
Qatari giant Nakilat is also understood to have been working on a quartet of VLACs of about 88,000 cbm. The negotiations are said to have been ongoing for some time and centred on four to six ships.
Brokers said shipowners are bullish on the future of the currently super-strong VLGC market. But they are also preparing their fleets for the anticipated growth in the ammonia trades.
For a small additional capital expenditure of between $1m and $1.5m they can strengthen ships’ tanks and hulls which will allow them to carry full cargoes of ammonia, which has a higher specific gravity than other products carried by VLGCs.
But shipowners are still awaiting the commercial arrival of the first ammonia dual-fuelled engines to complete the design options for this emerging breed of vessel.
