Key Players in the LNG Carrier Market

Investors: If you want to benefit from the LNG shipping boom, here is an introduction! (With 4 charts and a table)

Source: Maran Gas Maritime, Inc, 2024

EOA’s Main Takeaways

1. LNG shipping plays a key role in transporting large volumes of the super-chilled fuel from export terminals to demand sites across the globe. Its value chain consists of shipbuilders mainly based in South Korea, Japan, and China, and shipowners who own their fleets either with 100% interest, or jointly with international shipping companies.

2. The top LNG carrier companies in terms of number of vessels include OSK lines, MOL, Nakilat, Seapeak, and Maran Gas. Other market players include BW LNG, GasLog, BP shipping, SK Line, SM Korea Line LNG, and Hoegh LNG.

3. Japanese and Korean shipbuilders remain the dominate players in the shipbuilding market, with Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) being the world’s top shipbuilder.

4. The LNG orderbook has reached an all-time high of 360 vessels which is equivalent to 55% of the current fleet.  This means that the LNG carrier fleet will surpass the 1,000 milestone in the next 4-5 years.

5. The total committed investments in the LNG tanker newbuilding orderbook is estimated at $72-$92 billion.

6. The newbuilding activity is expected to slightly slowdown in the next years due to a saturated orderbook, limited slots availability in top shipyards, and high newbuilding prices.

7. Investors can take advantage of this LNG boom by investing in the public companies the produce, operate, trade and ship LNG. Also in companies that build LNG carriers and providers of materials needed to build these carriers.

Source: Hanwha Ocean, 2024