HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering has signed a contract to build eight very large gas carriers (VLGCs) for an Asian shipping firm. The deal is valued at 1.4161 trillion won, with deliveries scheduled through the first half of 2030. This order brings the company's 2024 total to 123 ships, including LNG and liquefied carbon dioxide carriers. The firm has now reached over 60% of its annual order target as it expands its fleet of low-carbon and gas transport vessels.
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The mention of liquefied carbon dioxide carriers is the real story here. Shipping CO2 is a prerequisite for any large scale carbon capture and storage project. It will be interesting to see if these ships are tied to specific government subsidies or carbon credits.
True, but the delivery date is 2030. That is a long window. I wonder if the port infrastructure for unloading liquefied CO2 will actually be ready by then, or if we are just building ships without the docks to support them.
Infrastructure always lags behind the hardware. We see it with EV chargers and we will see it with CO2 terminals. The ships are the easy part. The land side permitting is where these timelines usually break.
HD Korea is hitting their targets fast. Most of these are gas carriers, which is a bridge, but the shift toward CO2 carriers shows where the industrial demand is moving.
