(Yicai Global) Nov. 4 -- Chinese shipbuilding giant Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group has scored an order for five liquified natural gas carriers from a consortium of four international shipping companies, which includes the country’s first LNG shipping specialist China LNG Shipping Holdings.

Hudong-Zhonghua will supply the consortium, in which each party holds an equal 25 percent stake, with five LNG carriers with a capacity of 174,000 cubic meters each, the two co-owners of China LNG Shipping, maritime giants China Merchants Energy Shipping and COSCO Shipping Energy Transportation, said yesterday.

The finished vessels will be leased to Middle Eastern oil major Qatar Energy for long-term use. Although the price was not mentioned, a similar deal for two LNG vessels of the same specifications ordered by China Merchants Energy in April this year came to USD380 million in total.

The consortium, which also consists of Japan’s Nippon Yusen Kabushiki and Kawasaki Kisen as well as the Malaysia International Shipping Corp., placed an order for seven LNG carriers of the same specifications in August but this time with South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries. These vessels will also be leased to Doha-based Qatar Energy.

China LNG Shipping had a fleet of 21 large LNG carriers as of the end of last year, and business is booming as Europe turns to importing gas by ship, rather than overland through pipelines, due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.

China Merchants Energy’s LNG transportation business logged a 11.4 percent jump in net profit in the first three quarters from the same period last year to CNY496 million (USD68.38 million), according to its third-quarter earnings report. While COSCO’s LNG business posted net profit of CNY575 million over the period.

Buoyed by the good news, China Merchant Energy’s share price [SHA:601872] surged 9.99 percent to close at CNY8.04 (USD1.11) today and COSCO’s stock [SHA:600026] closed up 7.1 percent at CNY20.04. Earlier in the day it had soared 8.5 percent to CNY20.30.

Editor: Kim Taylor