Total orderbook exceeds 500 vessels by 2028, twice as many as in-service LNG-fueled vessels
The shipping industry continues introducing LNG as the leading alternative fuel for new ships.
According to the DNV’s recent Alternative Fuels Insight (AFI) report, nine LNG-fuelled vessels were added to AFI platform in July making the total orderbook exceed 500 vessels by 2028, twice as many as in-service LNG-fueled vessels, Morcenter TFC says on its Telegram channel.
DNV says there are currently 313 in-service vessels operating on LNG, mostly with dual-fuel engines. The number has grown rapidly over the last eight years compared for example to 2014 when there were just 50 LNG-fueled vessels in service. The segment currently with the greater number of LNG vessels in-service is passenger ships and car ferries although the numbers are quickly rising for containerships, tankers, and offshore supply vessels.
In addition, there are a further 229 vessels currently in service that are considered to be LNG-ready. Large operators have been slow to undertake conversions, in part waiting for the cost required for the conversion to decline to improve the economics of refitting the ships. Hapag-Lloyd completed in 2021 the first conversion of a containership that had been built LNG-ready and recently MAN confirmed that it has been contracted by Matson to undertake the refit of the first of line’s LNG-ready containerships.
Martin Wold, DNV’s Principal Consultant for Alternative Fuels, said that although the growth in orders has slowed down somewhat in line with the general newbuild ordering activity, there are several large orders in the pipeline and there will be lots of additional orders for LNG-fueled ships for 2025 delivery and beyond.
An analysis of DNV’s data shows that orders for LNG-fueled vessels surpassed 160 in the first seven months of 2022. Containerships are leading the orders representing half of the vessels being ordered followed by car carriers which make up another quarter of the orders. The shipping industry is embracing dual-fuel technology with 89 percent of the orders using these engines versus pure gas engines.
Wold also highlights that the infrastructure is being developed for fueling LNG vessels. DNV’s data shows that the number of LNG bunker vessels reached 38 in-service this year. They also report that 18 additional bunker vessels are on order. They also believe that 18 additional LNG bunker vessels are under discussion. This is supporting the geographic expansion for the operation of LNG-fueled vessels. While Europe remains the largest area for LNG ships, DNV shows that global operations are the largest segment for the new orders.
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