4 July 2023 (Lloyd's List) - NEWBUILDING contracts for 30 merchant ships valued at $1.95bn have been confirmed in the past week in the dry cargo, containership, gas carrier, tanker and vehicle carrier sectors.
In the vehicle carrier sector, South Korea’s Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co has booked an order for four 8,000 car capacity vehicle carriers from an undisclosed shipowner. The dual-fuel liquefied natural gas specification vessels are due for delivery during 2027 and represent the first pure car and truck carrier order to be placed at this shipbuilder in 10 years.
Hyundai Mipo’s last newbuilding contract for PCTCs was placed there in 2013 by Israeli tonnage provider Ray Car Carriers for a series of 7,700 car capacity vessels, which were delivered between 2014 and 2017.
The majority of vehicle carrier orders in the past few years have been placed at Chinese shipyards, with the only other such vessels ordered in South Korea recently being four 8,000 car capacity ships placed at Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, also by Ray Car Carriers.
With this latest order, the total newbuilding orderbook for PCTCs has now reached 148 vessels with a combined capacity of 1.1m cars, or around 29% of existing fleet capacity in service. The vast majority of the orderbook is for alternative-fuel ships, with dual-fuel LNG being the preferred specification of most operators presently.
A recent newbuilding contract confirmed in the LNG tanker sector comprised a pair of 170,000 cu m capacity ships ordered at Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, with delivery in 2027. No shipowner was disclosed by the shipbuilder for this newbuilding contract, valued at some $250m per vessel.
Meanwhile, Swedish oil product and chemical tanker operator Donsotank has confirmed that it has ordered two 22,500 dwt vessels at China’s Wuhu Shipyard, with delivery in the second and fourth quarters of 2025.
Donsotank’s newbuildings have been specified for dual-fuel LNG operations, highest ice-class and shore power. They will be similar to two ships delivered from the same shipbuilder in 2021 and 2022.
According to DNV’s Alternative Fuels Insight data, 55 ships capable of using alternative fuels were ordered in the past month. This comprised 26 ships of dual-fuel LNG and 29 vessels of dual-fuel methanol specification.
The container sector provided around 50% of dual-fuel LNG vessels ordered in June to bring the total number of LNG-fuelled boxships past 250 ships. The container sector provided 80% of dual-fuel methanol vessels ordered in the past month.
