South Korea’s Order Value Exceeds $138 Billion. LNG Tankers for Poland Are Being Built Here

/in /by

By Marek Grzybowski

 

President Donald Trump’s policy against operators of ships manufactured in the PRC may result in new orders flowing into the docks of the Republic of Korea shipyards. VesselsValue analysts have determined that by March 2025, the value of orders from the South Korean shipbuilding industry has already exceeded USD 138 billion. Ships from the LNG sector dominate. The value of the order portfolio is estimated at USD 71.3 billion. This is about 52% of the total value of South Korea’s orders.

Hyundai Heavy Industries is building gas carriers that will already provide supplies of liquefied gas to Poland. The first two LNG carriers built in South Korea entered service for Orlen at the end of 2022. The next two were christened this year. The first gas shipments delivered by ships operating on behalf of Orlen reached the terminal in Świnoujście in 2023. In 2025, 4 more LNG tankers should enter service, the charter of which is paid for by ORLEN. In 2024, two new ships for transporting liquefied natural gas LNG joined the fleet. At the Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries shipyard in Mokpo, South Korea, the ships were named: “Józef Piłsudski” and “Ignacy Paderewski”. Orlen emphasizes that the two new gas tankers will provide the company with greater flexibility in securing liquefied gas supplies to Poland by sea. The tankers’ charter period is 10 years. The contract provides for the possibility of extending the lease.

The ordered tanker can load approximately 70 thousand tons of LNG. This corresponds to approximately 100 million m3 of natural gas in a gaseous state. – This is as much as all households in Poland consume on average during a week. The size of the ordered vessels ensures their versatility and the possibility of receiving and delivering gas in almost all LNG terminals in the world – informs Orlen. The tankers have integrated management of electricity consumption. They are equipped with a re-liquefaction system, which allows for the recovery of gas, which naturally evaporates during transport.

Operators have placed orders for 276 LNG transport vessels in South Korean shipyards, Veson Nautical experts have calculated using VesselsValue data. Container ships rank second with contracts worth $35.6 billion in market value. This is about 26% of the Korean order book. 184 container ships will be built in the docks. LPG tankers rank third with 129 ordered ships and a contract value of $14.9 billion. The Korean shipyard portfolio includes 185 tankers, worth $14.7 billion. The order book with eight ordered r-ro ships plays a marginal role in the market. Car carriers rank fifth in the contract book with a value of $929 billion.

French Connection
The leading position among contractors is occupied by the European operator. CMA CGM ranks first with contracts worth USD 8.09 billion. The order book includes only 38 container ships. The French shipowner focused on purchasing ULCVs, New Panamax and Post Panamax. CMA CGM Group with a fleet of 666 ships with a capacity of 3.9 million TEU ranks 3rd on the Alhaliner top 100 list.

In second place, a significant ordering party is NYK. Its contracts in Korean shipyards total USD 7.21 billion. In Korean shipyards, NYK is building 26 large LNG ships with a capacity of 174 thousand CBM and three VLACs with a capacity of 88 thousand CBM. The operator NYK SHIPMANAGEMENT (NYKSM) currently has 204 ships, of which over 70 are LNG/LPG tankers. It is the ship management entity of NYK Group. Founded in 2001, NYKSM is a wholly owned subsidiary of NYK and operates in Singapore.

NYKSM provides technical management and crew management services for NYK Group vessels. It also provides operating services for car carriers, bulk carriers, container ships, tankers and gas carriers, etc. In addition to the ships ordered from South Korea, NYK has contracts for 56 ships built in Chinese, Japanese and German shipyards. These include LNG carriers, LPG carriers, bulk carriers and tankers.

 

Source: NYK

Qatar with a gas portfolio
Qatar Gas Transport ranks third in the contract portfolio of Korean shipyards. It holds orders worth USD 6.9 billion. South Korean shipbuilders have received orders for 29 LNG transport vessels from this operator. The order portfolio also includes Qmax. Qatar Gas Transport Co is currently the leading company in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in financial terms. The operator has a fleet worth USD 11.9 billion, a significant part of which is in operation, and some in order books – informs Rebecca Galanopoulos from Veson Nautical, in a press release.

The operator informs that it currently manages 24 conventional LNG carriers (140 thousand – 170 thousand m3), 31 Q-Flex vessels (210 thousand – 217 thousand m3), 14 Q-Max vessels (263 thousand – 266 thousand m3). Qatar Gas Transport placed an order a year ago for the construction of 15 large LNG carriers to be built at Samsung. The contract is worth $230 million for each carrier. This is the highest-value contract placed in Korean shipyards in recent times.

Qatar Energy ranks fourth with an order value of $6.52 billion. It includes 25 large LNG carriers with a capacity of 174,000-175,000 m3. With a total order value of $6.38 billion, Evergreen Marine Corporation ranks fifth. In Korean shipyards, the shipowner has placed orders for 28 ships. These will be new Panamax containerships with a capacity of 15,372 to 15,500 TEU and ULCVs with a capacity of 24,000 TEU. MOL is next in line with an order value of $5.62 billion. A total of 26 ships will be built in Korean shipyards.

Of the ships ordered in South Korea, about 37% are equipped with dual-fuel engines. These orders have a combined market value of USD 71.4 billion. In addition to LNG tankers, these are mainly ro-ro ships and car carriers. Container ship operators are the second group of dual-fuel ships. In this sector, 148 dual-fuel ships have been contracted, which is about 80% of the order book. About 50% of the LPG tanker order book, or 64 ships, will be built as ships that will have dual-fuel engines. The value of the contracts has been estimated at USD 7.5 billion.

Korean shipowners rejuvenate their fleet
Considering the value of the fleet and the order book, the Korean shipowner HMM ranks first, according to VessealsValue. It has a fleet of 112 ships worth USD 11.9 billion. In addition to 84 bulk carriers with a deadweight of over 922.4 thousand TEU, the operator also manages a fleet of bulk carriers, oil and LNG tankers, and car carriers. It is relatively modern, and the average age of the ships is estimated at about eight years. H Line Shipping ranks second with a fleet value of USD 6.09 billion and 62 ships.

Pan Ocean ranks third with a fleet value of USD 5.73 billion, ranking second in terms of the largest fleet, with 126 ships, 60% of which are bulk carriers. Sinokor Merchant Marine CO., LTD. (SMM), which ranks fourth on the Korean fleet list by value, has the largest fleet by volume with 134 ships. But its VessealsValu is estimated at $5.73 billion. The average age of SMM’s fleet is slightly older than other Korean fleets. The average age of SMM’s ships is estimated at 11 years.

Source: Pan Ocean

More than half of SMM’s fleet is made up of container ships. The operator has 75 container ships with a total capacity of almost 142,000 TEU, as well as tankers, bulk carriers and LNG carriers. Sinokor Merchant Marine has the distinction of launching the first Korea-China container line in 1989, three years before Korea and China established official diplomatic relations. The company name “Sinokor Company Ltd” was approved by the Hong Kong Companies Registry Office, and the direct container shipping route between Korea and China was approved by both governments in 1989.

South Korea ranks sixth among the world’s fleets in 2025. Its value is estimated at $69.6 billion by VessealsValue. This is an increase of almost $2 billion since last year. The high value of the fleet is due to the large number of new ships. Therefore, South Korea is outside the top ten in terms of the number of ships. The country was overtaken last year by newcomers, including UAE shippers. South Korea’s investment in LNG transport continues to pay off. The value of the sector puts South Korea’s fleet in fourth place, valued at $17.2 billion. South Korea has maintained its key role as a global exporter of cars. A fleet of car carriers worth more than $8.9 billion provides significant support for this business.