LNG Tanker Shipbuilders Avoid Slump

LNG tankers have avoided a slump in new ship prices because of rising Asian gas demand and limited competition from Chinese shipbuilders

According to Bloomberg Business Week, prices for tankers able to hold 160,000 cubic meters of gas have held steady at about $202 million since 2010, based on Clarkson Plc data, bolstering earnings for South Korea-based Samsung Heavy Industries Co. and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., the biggest makers of the vessels.

Capesize dry-bulk ship prices have plunged 18 percent in the period because of a glut partly caused by China financing orders to prop up local yards.

Chinese shipbuilders have been largely shut out of the LNG tanker market as the vessels are more complicated and more expensive to build than ships for carrying commodities or containers. That’s curtailing competition for the 140 new LNG tankers that ship-classification society ABS expects operators to order over the next five years.