Greek shipowners are consolidating their position among the elite “players” of the LNG carrier market, implementing an expanded shipbuilding program that will increase their fleet in the coming years.
According to data shared with “Naftemporiki” by Veson Nautical, Greek shipowners have 52 LNG carriers on order, worth 13.6 billion US dollars. The Greek orderbook corresponds to 13.5% of the tonnage under construction in number of ships and 14.3% in value.
A larger shipbuilding program is implemented only by Japanese shipowners, having 73 ships on order, i.e. 18.9% of the global order book.
The South Koreans rank third with 46 LNG carriers under construction (11.9% share internationally), which have jumped onto the market with several orders over the last years, followed by shipowners based in Qatar (44 ships – 11.4%) and Bermuda (28 ships – 7.25%).
If you include the ships currently sailing the seas and those under construction in the shipyards, the Greek-owned fleet of LNG carriers is worth a total of 31.1 billion US dollars, based on Veson Nautical’s platform.
The single most expensive fleet in the world is the Japanese one, which is valued at 37.8 billion dollars, followed by the Chinese with a value of 21.1 billion dollars.
Close behind are the fleets of Qatar and South Korea with 18.71 billion US dollars and 18.67 billion US dollars respectively.
Record deliveries
The global fleet of LNG carriers will grow by more than 50% in the coming years, as massive deliveries of new vessels from shipyards begin this year, in the wake of the order rally of the last four years.
A rally, in which the Greek shipowners were the protagonists, while gaining new momentum, boosted by Qatar and the enormous shipbuilding program it implements for oversized LNG carriers.
