Hanwha Ocean lands ultra-large ammonia carrier contract

In the DART filing, Hanwha Ocean, formerly known as Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co, said the contract for the vessel was set for KRW163Bn (US$125M). The ammonia carrier is scheduled for delivery in 2026, with the contract end date set for 30 September 2026.

Hanwha Ocean listed its sales for the fiscal year as approaching KRW5.0Tn (US$3.9Bn). Hanwha Ocean has not published further information on the deal on its website at time of writing.
The new contract follows a larger contract, albeit set at a matching price tag per vessel, valued at around US$500M for four very-large ammonia carriers Hanwha Ocean is building for Greek shipowner Naftomar. 

Those vessels, once built, will be capable of transporting 93,000 m³ of ammonia, making them, "among the ammonia carriers ordered so far... the largest in the world", according to Hanwha. 

Calling ammonia "the most economical means of transporting hydrogen, to date," the shipyard said it has been in the process of developing technology for ammonia and other low-carbon fuels, including approvals in principle for 86,000-m³ ammonia carrier designs in September and October 2022 from French class society Bureau Veritas and UK-based Lloyd’s Register, respectively.

The quartet of newbuild vessels will be the first for Greece-based Naftomar, which holds a fleet of more than 20 LPG carriers and a handful of tankers. All four of the yet-to-be-built ammonia carriers will be equipped with shaft-generator motor systems to improve fuel economy, and Hanwha’s proprietary HS4 ’smart-ship’ platform. The vessels are ammonia fuel-ready and can be converted over to ammonia propulsion in the future, according to Hanwha.

With the ultra-large designation, Hanwha Ocean’s latest one-vessel ammonia carrier contract could supersede its previous four-vessel order to become the largest ammonia carrier ordered, to date.