Tight Asia capacity limits room for new LNG ships

However, shipyards in South Korea and China are unable to accommodate demand for new LNG vessels as they work to meet a flood of orders for new container ships following global supply chain disruptions and port congestion that have held up ships in the United States and China. This supports spot chartering rates for LNG carriers which have hit all-time highs. (File pic shows Malaysia's MISC C LNG tanker Camellia.)

SEOUL: Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering has mostly filled its order book for the next 2-1/2 years as the pandemic drove demand for container ships, leaving little room to meet the needs of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector, a senior company executive said.

With U.S. LNG exports rising, more LNG carriers are travelling longer distances to customers in North Asia and Europe while European countries have snapped up floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) as they ramp up LNG imports to replace Russian gas supplies in the wake of the Ukraine crisis.