South Korean private equity firm Hahn & Co plans to reshuffle the liquefied natural gas tanker fleets of its shipping companies SK Shipping and H-Line Shipping to create Asia’s biggest and the world’s third-largest operator of LNG carriers.
Under the agreement announced by the shipping firms’ owner Hahn & Co on Thursday, SK Shipping will receive 16 LNG carriers and their related long-term contracts from H-Line Shipping in exchange for 12 tankers, long-term contracts, and about $300 million in cash.
Once the transaction is completed, SK Shipping will operate as many as 32 LNG carriers and 14 liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vessels, while H-Line Shipping will become a tanker and bulk shipping-focused operator, their private-equity owner said.
Hahn & Co. created H-Line in 2014 by acquiring Hanjin Shipping Co.’s long-term dry-bulk operations.
Four years later, Hahn & Co bought 80% of SK Shipping from SK Group in 2018. Since then the private equity firm has steered SK Shipping away from speculative spot-market operations toward LNG and LPG fleets backed by long-term contracts.
The major LNG fleet reshuffle in South Korea, the world’s third-largest LNG importer behind China and Japan, comes amid rising LNG demand despite heightened geopolitical uncertainties. Large LNG fleets with long-term contracts attached would benefit the South Korean gas shippers.
Surging gas demand in South and Southeast Asia will push global LNG demand up by 65% by 2050 from 2025 levels, although growth this year has been stalled by the Strait of Hormuz crisis, Shell, the world’s biggest LNG trader, said in its annual LNG Outlook 2026 in June.
While this year’s trade could decline from 2025 due to the Middle East conflict, Shell sees global LNG demand increasing to nearly 700 million tons annually by 2050, up by around 65% from the 2025 levels of 422 million tons.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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