Samsung Heavy Industries Wins Order for Four More LNG Carriers, Sticking to 'Selective' Strategy

Samsung Heavy Industries said on September 14 that it had won an order for four LNG carriers from a shipowner in Oceania, valued at a combined 1.4078 trillion won. At the exchange rate used in the disclosure, roughly 1,338.2 won per dollar, the deal is worth about $1.05 billion, or close to $263 million per vessel.

The contract lifts Samsung Heavy Industries' new orders so far this year to roughly $11.5 billion, up from about $10.5 billion before the deal was announced. That puts the shipbuilder at around 83% of its annual order target of $13.9 billion, with four months still left in the year.

The shipbuilder had already been running ahead of plan. New orders booked between January and August totaled $10.5 billion, equivalent to 76% of the full-year goal. Broken down by segment, commercial vessel orders reached $6.1 billion against a $5.7 billion target, a rate of 107%, while orders for offshore and ocean-plant projects stood at $4.4 billion, or 54% of the $8.2 billion goal for that category.

Samsung Heavy Industries' order backlog also remains substantial. As of the end of August, the company held contracts for 151 vessels worth a combined $35.5 billion. Commercial ships account for $27.2 billion of that total, or 77%, and LNG carriers alone make up 69 vessels worth $16.4 billion, or 46% of the entire backlog.

Analysts note that because Samsung Heavy Industries had already secured a large volume of work and exceeded its commercial order target, the decision to keep adding LNG carriers signals a shift in emphasis from simply expanding order volume toward prioritizing vessel price and profitability. LNG carriers, as high-value-added ships, typically command higher prices and stronger margins than standard commercial vessels.

The latest four-ship order is being read as an extension of that approach, with the company continuing to pursue contracts that bolster earnings quality rather than just backlog size, even as it remains well positioned to meet or beat its 2026 targets.