South Korea’s H-Line Shipping has added two more dual-fuelled pure car/truck carriers at Chinese state-owned Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI), bringing its order tally to four.
A shipping source familiar with the deal confirmed H-Line’s dual-fuel LNG newbuildings contract, saying the company has ordered the 7,000-ceu vessels against long-term charter contracts.
“Like the earlier two PCTCs that it inked last year, the latest two ships were also backed by charter contracts from Hyundai Glovis,” the shipping source said.
Details of the charter contracts between H-Line and Hyundai Glovis were not disclosed, but car-carrier brokers said the charter period is for more than 10 years.
A Hyundai Glovis spokesman denied that his company has chartered H-Line’s latest pair of PCTC newbuildings but confirmed that it has fixed the first and second vessel.
Shipping sources said H-Line is paying slightly more for its latest two PCTC newbuildings as the vessels were inked under a new contract.
“They are not option vessels to the first two newbuildings that it placed last year,” the source said. “With shipyards running out of berth slots, anyone that orders newbuildings under the current market should expect an increase in newbuilding prices.”
The newbuilding price of H-Line’s latest two vessels was not disclosed but the company was reported to have paid around $83m each for its earlier two ships, which will be able to run on LNG and conventional marine fuels. GSI is scheduled to deliver two PCTCs in 2024 and the other two in 2025.
Officials at GSI were not available for comment, while H-Line executives declined to comment when contacted.
Better known as a bulker owner, H-Line also owns five LNG carriers. Four of the gas ships are trading for Kogas and one — the 174,000-cbm Vivirt City LNG (built 2021) — is fixed out to trader Vitol.
The South Korean owner is due to take delivery of two LNG carrier newbuildings from Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries — one in June and the other in November 2023.
Vitol was reported to have chartered the duo for up to 10 years at a rate in the low $60,000s per day.
Shipping sources familiar with H-Line said the South Korean owner is keen to expand its presence in the LNG segment. It is one of the companies that is bidding for Qatar’s LNG carrier project.
On the bulker front, H-Line has three LNG-fuelled, 210,000-dwt newcastlemax bulk carriers on order at Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry for delivery in the third quarter of 2023. It booked the trio last year on the back of charters to mining giant Rio Tinto that will last at least five years.
H-Line is believed to be the first shipping company to have invested in dual-fuel bulk carriers powered by LNG. It ordered a total of four, 180,000-dwt capesizes at Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries in 2018 and 2019 on the back of long-term charter contracts from Posco. The shipyard has since delivered the quartet.
H-Line has 50 vessels on the water, according to the company’s website. The South Korean company was founded in 2014, when private equity firm Hahn & Co paid Hanjin Shipping KRW 300bn ($256m) for 78% of its bulk shipping business, including seven LNG carriers.
In 2017, H-Line acquired part of Hyundai Merchant Marine’s bulker fleet by paying KRW 120bn.
