The number of orders for gas carriers increased to a record
The growing demand for LNG triggered an increase in the number of new orders for gas carriers.
At the beginning of October, the order portfolio of gas carriers reached a record level of 128. In the period from 2018 to 2021, the volume of trades for new gas carriers in the world reached 77, 60, 53 and 86, respectively, reports Hellenic Shipping News with reference to data from Clarksons Research.
We will remind that at the beginning of the month, the daily rate for large gas carriers in the regions of the Asia-Pacific and Atlantic Oceans jumped to more than 300,000 dollars, compared to 70,000 dollars two months earlier.
The tension in the market also caused a jump in prices for gas carriers. In early October, the cost of a new vessel cost $245 million, the highest level since 2014 and 14.5 percent more than at the beginning of this year, according to China State Shipbuilding Corp Ltd, an economic research center.
Currently, the demand in the shipping LNG market will exceed the supply for some time.
The next deliveries of gas carriers from the world’s shipbuilders are scheduled for 2027.
Until 2022, only one shipyard in China — Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding of China — was capable of building large gas carriers. At the same time, the company occupied less than 10% of the market share. The rest of the market was occupied by three South Korean shipbuilders — Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding.
Previously, USM wrote that the global shortage of gas carriers led to a record increase in rates for these vessels in the Atlantic.