HD Hyundai scores world’s biggest LCO2 carrier order

HD Korea Shipbuilding and Offshore Engineering, an intermediate holding company of South Korea’s heavy industries conglomerate HD Hyundai, said Wednesday that it has scored an order to build the world’s largest liquefied carbon dioxide, or LCO2, carrier.

According to HD Hyundai, the shipbuilder recently signed a 179 billion won ($141 million) contract with Greek ship operator Capital Maritime Group to build two 22,000-cubic-meter-class LCO2 carriers. The carriers are 159.9 meters in length, 27.4 meters in width and 17.8 meters in height.

HD Hyundai said the LCO2 carriers will be built at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard in Ulsan and the ship delivery will take place in phases in the second half of 2025. The carriers will secure a variety of usage as it is being designed to ship different liquefied gases other than LCO2 such as liquefied petroleum gas and ammonia.

The Korean shipbuilder’s Ammonia Duel Fuel Ready technology will be applied to the LCO2 carriers so that they can be transformed to ships powered by ammonia in the future in step with the company’s efforts to achieve carbon neutrality.

“We hope to lead the carbon dioxide carrier market with HD Hyundai, the firm that is the most well-prepared in terms of technology in the next-generation eco-friendly shipbuilding sector,” said an official at Capital Maritime Group.

According to the Global CCS Institute, the global carbon capture and store market will experience a compound annual growth rate of 30 percent as countries across the world are speeding up their carbon neutral policies. The Global CCS Institute predicts that the world’s total carbon capture will reach 7.6 billion metric tons in 2050. With the carbon capture and store sector expanding, HD Hyundai forecasts that the demand for LCO2 carriers will grow consequently.

“Moving forward, we expect to see orders for large, mega-sized LCO2 carriers,” said an official at HD KSOE. “We will lead this market based on our achievements in technological developments that we have preemptively accumulated.”