Capital Gas Carrier Corp, a company newly established by Greek shipowner Evangelos Marinakis, has ordered four 174,000 m3 LNG carriers at Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) in Korea.
Although specific delivery dates were not given, the vessels will be handed over in 2020 and 2021 and the last of the quartet will be completed by June 2021.
The contract, valued at US$744M, marks the first foray by Marinakis into the LNG sector.
The owner’s long-established shipping company, Capital Ship Management Corp, currently operates a 60-vessel fleet, comprising 41 tankers, four bulk carriers and 15 container ships.
Earlier this month Marinakis signed a letter of intent (LOI) with HHI for the construction of up to 10 LNG carriers in the 170,000-180,000 m3 size range.
It was reported at the time that an initial order for four ships would be accompanied by two sets of options of three vessels each.
Capital Gas joins an impressive list of Greek shipowners which have established a major presence in LNG shipping. The community’s contribution to the global LNG carrier fleet continues to grow.
A total of 25 LNG carriers were ordered during the first six months of 2018, comprising 21 conventional LNG ships, two floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) and two LNG bunker vessels.
Greek owners contracted 12 of the 23 conventional LNG carriers and FSRUs.
Of the Greek newbuilding orders during the first six months, Alpha Tankers contracted three, GasLog, Minerva Marine, TMS Cardiff Gas and Maran Gas two each and Thenamaris a single vessel.
One of the newly ordered Maran Gas vessels will be an FSRU.
By shipyard, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering won seven of the first-half 2018 Greek orders, Samsung Heavy Industries four and HHI one.
The Capital Gas order represents a fillip for HHI. On the day of the LOI signing with Capital Gas, HHI’s stock price jumped by 5%.
