South Korea’s Korea Line LNG is being linked to an order for an LNG bunker vessel at HD Hyundai Mipo.
HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, the shipyard holding arm of HD Hyundai Group, announced late last week that an Asian shipper had ordered a single LNGBV newbuilding without naming the contracting party.
Ulsan-based HD Mipo is slated to deliver the unit by May 2027.
The shipbuilding group did not disclose the exact size nor the price of the vessel, opting to combine the contract values with those of ultra-large ethane carriers.
Shipbuilding sources said the vessel has a capacity of 12,500 cbm and was priced at $88m.
Shipping players in Seoul said SM Group’s Korea Line LNG has ordered the bunker vessel against a long-term charter with Posco International — the trading arm of domestic steel giant Posco.
The globally facing Posco company recently completed the construction of a KRW 1.45trn ($1.1bn) LNG terminal in Gwangyang that took 20 years to build.
Gwangyang Terminal 1 has six tanks with a total capacity of 930,000 kiloliters, with port facilities offering further storage.
Posco International has said the terminal will provide natural gas for power generation and manufacturing in South Korea’s key industries. It will also offer services for unloading, storing, regasifying and discharging natural gas directly imported by client companies such as Posco, S-Oil and SK E&S.
The company said that aside from the LNG storage tank rental business, it plans to develop complementary projects such as sea trials and LNG bunkering.
Posco International is also constructing a second LNG terminal adjacent to the first, which is due for completion in 2026.
SM Group has become the go-to South Korean shipowner for LNG bunkering.
The company’s Korea Line LNG has built two large 18,137-cbm LNGBVs, the K Lotus (built 2022) for charter to Shell and the Korea Line LNG-chartered FuelLNG Venosa (built 2023).
As Korea Line, the company was selected to build the first two LNGBVs with Kogas’ in-house cargo containment system KC-1.
Both vessels, the 7,654-cbm SM Jeju LNG1 (built 2019) and the SM Jeju LNG2 (built 2020), are listed as “damaged” in Clarksons Shipping Intelligence Network database.
In February, the SM Jeju LNG1 was involved in a collision with a cargo ship, where the bunker vessel sustaining damage to its starboard side. Repairs were described as complex due to the new containment system design.
HD Mipo has also been making a name for itself in building LNGBVs. The company recently secured an order from John Bassadone’s new company, Hercules Tanker Management, for up to two 18,000-cbm vessels for about $92.4m each.
Big-name industry players such as TotalEnergies have spoken of a 40-vessel shortfall in LNGBVs in the period to 2030, as the number of LNG dual-fuelled vessels ramps up.
