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While European shipyards struggle to regain relevance in global shipbuilding, Hanwha Ocean delivered the two-hundredth liquefied natural gas carrier in the company’s history at the Geoje shipyard in South Korea, an absolute world milestone that no Asian or European rival has managed to replicate to date. According to the official announcement published by the South Korean conglomerate, the achievement coincided with the confirmation of new contracts with the Norwegian operator Knutsen OAS Shipping and the Italian Edison to build two more liquefied natural gas carriers with a capacity of 174,000 cubic meters each, equipped with a dual-fuel MAN ME-GI Mark 10.5 engine that records one of the lowest levels of residual methane released by exhaust in the entire gas maritime transport industry.
The two new ships ordered in 2026 will enter operation from 2028, flying the Norwegian flag and with long-term charter contracts already closed with European natural gas importers. Edison, partially controlled by the French EDF, will use the new fleet to transport liquefied gas from Qatar and the United States to regasification terminals in the Mediterranean Sea, especially in Piombino, Tuscany, and in La Spezia, Liguria.
The choice of the MAN ME-GI engine marks a technical turning point in the sector, which had been facing increasing regulatory pressure from the International Maritime Organization on direct methane emissions by exhaust, the main climate villain associated with the global transport of liquefied gas since the EEXI regulation came into force in 2023.
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Singapore covered 45 hectares of the Tengeh Reservoir in Tuas with 122,000 floating solar panels to try to reduce the chronic dependence on imported natural gas that has stifled the city-state for 60 years. The result already generates 60 megawatts of direct current, enough to power 16,000 homes and supply part of Asia’s largest automated port.
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Crewless and capable of spending 16 whole weeks without surfacing, the German drone submarine Greyshark uses hydrogen, carries 17 sensors, and creates underwater maps with a resolution of less than 2 centimeters per pixel, while just six units controlled by a single person can scan the entire Strait of Hormuz in 24 hours.
Why the Geoje shipyard became the heart of global shipbuilding
The Geoje shipyard, located on the island of the same name 400 kilometers from Seoul, is one of the largest maritime industrial facilities on the planet, with eight operational dry docks, simultaneous capacity for building up to 40 ships, and a workforce close to 30,000 people in continuous production cycles. The plant has belonged to the Hanwha group since 2023, when the company acquired the former Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in a transaction valued at over 2 billion dollars.
Since the acquisition, Hanwha has invested heavily in digitalization, robotization of welding processes, and internal logistics optimization of the shipyard. The result was an average reduction of 18% in the delivery time of standard liquefied gas carriers and a significant improvement in the operational margins of the segment, according to analyses by the specialized magazine Lloyd’s List.
Researchers have discovered that the more South Korea concentrates the production of liquefied gas transport vessels, the more Asian suppliers of specialized components cluster around Geoje, creating an industrial hub with a multiplier effect difficult to replicate in other regions of the planet. This phenomenon explains why Europe, even with Italy, Spain, and Germany trying to reactivate their shipbuilding industry, can no longer compete on scale.
The MAN ME-GI engine and the leap in reducing residual methane
The two-stroke MAN B&W 5G70ME-GI Mark 10.5 engine, manufactured in partnership between MAN Energy Solutions and Hanwha Engine, represents the state of the art in maritime propulsion for liquefied natural gas carriers. According to MAN data, the equipment delivers contractual guarantees of extremely low levels of residual methane released during onboard combustion, meeting the most aggressive targets of the International Maritime Organization for 2030.
Residual methane, technically known as methane slip, is the main environmental friction point of liquefied gas maritime transport. Although natural gas is often presented as a cleaner transition fuel than heavy fuel oil, part of the methane can escape unburned through the exhaust, nullifying much of the theoretical environmental gain of the fuel switch.
According to Offshore Energy, in coverage of the MAN contract with Hanwha, the Mark 10.5 version reduces methane slip to levels up to 70% lower than previous engines of the same family, a mark attributed to the new high-pressure injection system and the redesign of the combustion chamber.
The surprise return of the North American shipbuilding industry via Hanwha Philly
In parallel with Asian contracts, Hanwha is also advancing in partnership with the Hanwha Philly shipyard in Pennsylvania to build the first liquefied gas carrier under the American flag in almost five decades. The operation, known in the sector as Jones Act LNG Carrier, meets a long-standing requirement of American cabotage legislation, which mandates the use of vessels with hulls built in the United States for internal transport between ports.
The ship in question is expected to meet contracts signed by Hanwha Shipping itself, the North American division of the Korean group, with commercial terms valued at hundreds of millions of dollars over the next decade. The operation symbolizes the effort of the American federal administration to rearm the domestic shipbuilding industry in the face of Asian dominance.
According to coverage by the Maritime Executive, the project also arouses interest from North American steel manufacturers, from Ohio to Louisiana, who see an opportunity to resume structural supply for shipbuilding in volumes not seen since the 1980s. The full scale of the contract still depends on pending regulatory steps.
The global liquefied gas market that supports Hanwha’s bet
Global demand for liquefied natural gas carriers exploded since 2022, when the Russian invasion of Ukraine reorganized global supply routes and Europe rapidly shifted from Russian gas via pipeline to gas imported by ship. This shock created structural demand for new ships designed in the following years and raised the global backlog of liquefied gas carrier orders to record levels in 2024 and 2025.
According to data from Wood Mackenzie, the global fleet of liquefied gas carriers is expected to grow by 38% by 2030, with more than 350 new vessels entering operation. South Korea concentrates more than 70% of these orders, with Hanwha, Samsung Heavy Industries, and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries sharing the market among themselves in comparable shares.
It is worth noting that other discoveries about naval megaprojects, energy transition, and international logistics frequently appear in our Curiosities and Science sections, connecting global advances to discussions about the Brazilian natural gas sector.
Why Brazil closely observes every new carrier delivered in Asia
Brazil currently operates three active liquefied natural gas regasification terminals, in Guanabara Bay, Pecém, and Bahia, all supplied by ships from the international fleet. Without domestic production of such carriers, the country depends on the international spot market and long-term contracts to ensure transport availability during high demand periods.
The entry of more than 350 vessels into the global market by 2030 tends to reduce spot freight costs and increase the availability of cheap liquefied gas during critical windows, such as prolonged dry periods when Brazilian thermal plants need to be dispatched in the North and Northeast. This calculation directly affects the planning of Petrobras and private operators such as Eneva and Prio.
On the other hand, Brazil’s supply of liquefied gas for export remains limited, with few projects in advanced development stages in the Santos basin. Hanwha’s turnaround in Geoje and Philadelphia also tends to reorder the balance between the Atlantic and Pacific in global supply routes over the next decade.
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