Livemint: South Korea's STX Offers India LNG Shipbuilding Technology

South Korea’s financially troubled shipbuilder STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co. Ltd has agreed to lend technology to three Indian shipyards to build liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers locally, ending India’s search for an experienced global partner to get started in this business.

The first objective is to win a tender issued by GAIL (India) Ltd for hiring nine LNG ships; the second is to promote Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ mission.

GAIL, India’s state-run natural gas firm, will not order the nine ships directly at shipyards. It plans to hire the carriers for 20 years starting September 2017 from fleet owners who will have to construct three of the nine ships in India, as per a 1 August tender.

The price of the ship is crucial for ship owners, a big factor in calculating the daily hire rates, which is one of the criteria for deciding the contract.

Prospective bidders are required to quote for lots of three vessels with a provision that in each lot, one of the vessels shall be built in an Indian yard.

The tender condition, designed to help Indian yards enter the LNG shipbuilding business, was written in the wake of a directive issued by the oil ministry that controls GAIL.  MORE