Global Energy Monitor’s LNG Carrier Tracker names a shipyard for every one of the 822 vessels it lists as operating in the June 2026 release. That makes a question answerable that is usually left to impression: who actually builds these ships?
The concentration
Three yards, all in South Korea, account for 603 of the 822.
| Yard | Operating vessels |
|---|---|
| Hanwha Ocean | 211 |
| Samsung Heavy Industries | 196 |
| HD Hyundai Heavy Industries | 196 |
That is 73 per cent of the operating fleet from three names. By country of yard the picture is only slightly less lopsided: South Korea built 620 of the 822, Japan 109, China 66, and every other country together 27, of which France accounts for 9 and Spain for 6.
The full ranking, with capacity, is on the shipyard ranking. The reasons the work is this concentrated, mainly the containment licensing and the skills involved, are in who builds LNG ships.
The order book tells a different story
The same tracker lists 364 vessels as under construction. Sorted the same way:
| Yard country | Under construction | Share |
|---|---|---|
| South Korea | 243 | 67% |
| China | 102 | 28% |
| Russia | 15 | 4% |
| United States | 4 | 1% |
Two things stand out. China’s share of the order book, 28 per cent, is more than three times its 8 per cent share of the fleet already in service. And no Japanese yard appears at all among the vessels under construction in this release, against 109 operating ships built there.
Hudong-Zhonghua is the clearest single example: 53 operating vessels, and 65 under construction, so the yard’s order book is already larger than everything it has delivered to date in this dataset.
What this does and does not show
These are counts of vessels in one tracker, not of yard capacity, revenue or berth slots. A yard’s country is the country GEM records for it. Vessels under construction are as reported for the release, and a yard’s order book can be revised between releases. What the comparison does support is the plain observation that the newest orders are spread across somewhat more countries than the existing fleet, while South Korea still holds two thirds of the total.
The individual vessels behind each number are in the carrier directory, and the current order book by delivery year is on its own page.