Earned 1.55 billion in one go! China's LNG ships are helping the United States reap huge profits
This year has been a bumper year for China's shipbuilding industry. As a typical traditional industry, 90% of the world's shipbuilding orders are now held by China and South Korea, two Asian countries. China and South Korea are fiercely competing in the shipbuilding industry. China's advantages lie in its lower cost for the same standard tonnage, and the large share of Chinese companies in global trade.
LNG carriers are large vessels that transport liquefied natural gas. They have powerful maintenance systems that ensure the gas remains in a liquid state at -163℃ for transportation, and are completely sealed to prevent leakage. Because of this, they are also known as "super-refrigerated trucks at sea".
Before 2021, South Korea held 95% of the world's LNG carrier orders. However, with Chinese companies gradually breaking through key technologies, coupled with the surge in global demand for LNG carriers due to the Russo-Ukrainian War, Chinese shipyards have also received a large number of orders. Today, China's market share of LNG carriers has reached 25%. With sufficient profit margins and production experience, China's LNG carriers are bound to experience a wave of rapid development, and are very likely to occupy a major position in the future international market, just like many technologies that China has broken through in the past.
Since the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War, the West has imposed sanctions on Russian natural gas, leading to a surge in natural gas prices in Europe. After the Nord Stream gas pipeline was destroyed, repairs are a long way off. To get through this winter, natural gas transported across the Atlantic from the United States by LNG carriers has become a lifeline for Western Europe. On average, the United States can earn $150 million per shipment of natural gas! According to Laurent Segalen, a banker at the Franco-British joint clean energy investment bank, the total cost of filling a 170,000 cubic meter LNG carrier with natural gas and transporting it to Europe is $60 million.
This is also the reason for the surge in orders for Chinese LNG carriers. The United States is making a killing from the war, reaping huge profits by selling to European countries at more than four times the price. This has led to a surge in demand, with almost no idle LNG carriers in the entire Atlantic. Thanks to this, Chinese shipyards have received orders.
