MOL returns to Samsung for more VLECs

Japanese shipowner Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) has penned a new shipbuilding deal for very large ethane carriers (VLECs) in South Korea.

The Tokyo-based company has contracted Samsung Heavy Industries for two 100,000 cu m newbuilds, taking its orderbook at the Geoje shipyard to five.

The 230-m-long ships, equipped with ethane dual-fuel engines, will be delivered in 2028 into a long-term charter with SCG Chemicals, a unit of Thailand’s Siam Cement Group.

No price was revealed for the latest order. Three VLECs booked at Samsung a few months back for delivery by December 2027 came for around $168m each. These have also been fixed to SCG Chemicals to ship ethane to its petrochemical plants in Vietnam.

MOL entered the VLEC business in 2014, and the latest deal will see the number of vessels in this segment managed and operated by the company increase to 14 vessels out of about 90 units delivered or on order.