Korean shipbuilding giant HD Hyundai has started its first ship delivery this year, delivering a liquefied natural gas carrier to an Asia-based shipper on Monday.
HD Hyundai said its smallest affiliate, HD Samho, delivered a 174,000-cubic-meter LPG carrier on the day, two and a half years after the order was placed in 2022.
HD Hyundai’s two other affiliates — HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and HD Hyundai Mipo — will deliver a 16,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit container carrier and a 2,800 TEU container carrier to other shippers, respectively, on the following day.
HD Hyundai declined to reveal the names of the clients due to the confidentiality of the contracts.
A total of 139 vessels will be delivered to customers from HD Hyundai’s three shipyards this year, including dozens of environmentally friendly ships and high value-added ships such as LPG carriers and LNG carriers.
Most of them have been ordered since 2022, a period when ship prices began to rise. The payments for the ships given upon these deliveries will significantly contribute to the company’s profits this year considering favorable foreign currency rates.
The company expects to maintain its positive sales trend this year, driven by strong demand for eco-friendly vessels and LNG carriers, where HD Hyundai ranked No. 1 in 2022 as receiving orders for 44 LNG ships, the most in the world.
“Despite concerns about a potential decline in LNG carrier demand, industrial sentiment remains positive as expectations grow for an increase in LNG trade following the incoming Trump administration,” an industrial source who wished to remain anonymous.
With these expectations, HD Hyundai's shipbuilding holdings unit, HD Korea Shipbuilding and Offshore Engineering, has set its annual shipbuilding sales target at $18 billion -- an increase of 33 percent from the previous year -- despite forecasts predicting a 25.7 percent decline in global shipbuilding orders.
