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Two more LNG carriers bring Samsung Heavy within $1.5 billion of its 2026 order target
Samsung Heavy Industries won a $494.3 million order for two LNG carriers due by May 2029, taking its 2026 orders to $12.4 billion, or 89% of target. LNG has carried commercial orders to 140% of goal while offshore sits near half its implied share.
The Investor · Invest desk
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What happened
- Samsung Heavy disclosed the contract in a regulatory filing and identified the buyer only as an Asian shipowner.
- Its 46 commercial vessels this year comprise 20 LNG carriers, 14 crude oil tankers, six gas carriers, four container ships and two ethane carriers.
- Offshore orders worth $4.4 billion, including two floating LNG production facilities, make up the rest of the year's total.
- The third dock at its Geoje shipyard, 640 meters long and 97.5 meters wide, can build four large LNG carriers at the same time.
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Why it matters
- exposure With about a third of the year's order value sitting in two offshore units, one large award or one slipped contract moves Samsung Heavy's annual total more than any carrier deal.
- constraint The figures cover one yard's 2026 intake, so they cannot show whether LNG demand is propping up backlogs across Korean shipbuilders as a group.
- decision Samsung Heavy's July plan to put 10 trillion won into Geoje for high-value vessels and offshore infrastructure aims its capital at the two lines that filled this year's book.
At 672.2 billion won for two ships, the buyer is paying about $247 million a carrier [1]. The average across the 46 commercial vessels Samsung Heavy has booked this year is about $174 million [2], well below this pair. By count, LNG units are 43% of that commercial tally [3].
The group target is further from done. Samsung Heavy set a $13.9 billion order goal early in the year [8] and a $5.7 billion goal for commercial ships [4]. If the difference between the two is the offshore goal, offshore was meant to bring in about $8.2 billion [4], and the $4.4 billion booked so far is about 54% of it [5]. Commercial is $2.3 billion over its number [6] while offshore is about $3.8 billion under [7]. The net is the $1.5 billion the group still needs [8].
Offshore is the lumpier book. The two units that take the year's count from 46 to 48 account for about 35% of its order value and 4% of its hulls [12], at an average of $2.2 billion each [9]. One more offshore award at that average would carry the group past $13.9 billion on its own [9][8]. At this deal's price, the gap equals just over six LNG carriers [10]. If neither arrives before December, the year ends short of the group goal despite the commercial overshoot [6][8].
The $12.4 billion is orders won in 2026, and neither report includes a backlog figure. The May 2029 date puts delivery of this pair roughly two and a half years after the Oct. 2 filing [11], and it describes one contract. The company says its big Geoje dock lets it meet delivery schedules reliably even with large order volumes [12].
I think LNG carriers are carrying Samsung Heavy's commercial year, since 20 of its 46 ships are LNG units [5][3] and this pair cost well above the average hull [1][2]. The counter-reading is that the group result turns more on a third offshore unit than on a 21st LNG carrier. "We play a central role in the global LNG value chain, from LNG carriers to FLNG," an official at Samsung Heavy Industries said [11]. The LNG view would be wrong if the year reaches $13.9 billion on offshore awards while LNG carrier orders stay at 20 [8][5].
What to watch
- A third offshore contract before year-end: at the $2.2 billion average of the first two, it would take group orders past the $13.9 billion target.
- The per-ship price on Samsung Heavy's next LNG carrier orders, against the roughly $247 million in this pair.
- Delivery dates on later LNG contracts, as a check on the company's claim that its Geoje dock holds schedules under heavy volume.