Daewoo shipbuilding to boost LNG carrier output

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Co, the world's second-biggest shipbuilder, said on Friday it would expand its capacity to build liquefied natural gas carriers to 14 ships per year from the current eight by 2006. Daewoo Shipbuilding, which has logged $3.5 billion worth of LNG ship orders so far this year, was also targeting total annual sales of 20 trillion won ($18.94 billion) by 2015, a company spokesman said.
South Korean shipbuilders control 72 percent of the world's LNG tanker market.
Soaring demand for LNG, driven by energy guzzling China and India, and falling gas output in the United States and Europe, has come as a boon to the South Korean shipbuilding sector.
Korean shipbuilders have won a string of orders from oil majors such as ExxonMobil Corp, which has helped fuel a flurry of foreign equity buying in the sector.
Shares in Daewoo Shipbuilding were down 0.34 percent to 14,700 won by 0240 GMT versus a 1.27 percent decline in the main bourse.