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, 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:
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:
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:
Shell, the world’s biggest LNG trader, 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:
