Shanghai: Sinopec, China Shipping Development and Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines have played it safe and selected China’s proven LNG leader, Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding, for a big $1.51bn order of gas carriers. The trio have ordered six 174,000 cum ships at the Shanghai yard.
80% of the financing comes from loans from a syndicate comprising the Export-Import Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited and Bank of China Limited, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, and Mizuho Corporate Bank. The loan is repayable over 15 years.
Sinopec will use the ships to move gas from Australia.
Hudong-Zhonghua was selected after an exhaustive period of research by the parties involved. It is MOL’s first gas ship orders in China, a stipulation of the charter contract being the necessity to haul cargoes in Chinese-built ships. [29/04/13]
