Ranking
Where LNG ships are built
The shipyards behind the LNG fleet on a map, with the vessels each has built and has on order. Filled amber dots are operating vessels; blue rings are ships under construction; the two are never added.
Yards by vessels built, all vessel types
Counts cover every vessel type the tracker holds for a yard, carriers, FSRUs and floating storage units, because all are yard output, and place 1,184 operating and under-construction vessels. A dot sits at the position GEM gives for the yard and its area grows with the number of vessels. For yards ranked by name see shipyards, and for why so few yards can build these ships the guide to who builds LNG ships.
- Operating vessels built
- Vessels under construction
- Area grows with the number of vessels
Yards on the same coast overlap; hover for a name or read the table. The outlines are coarse, so a yard can look a little inland.
By country
Vessels by the country of the yard that built or is building them. Operating and under construction are separate columns.
| Yard country | Yards | Operating vessels | Share of operating | Under construction | Share of under construction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Korea | 6 | 620 | 75% | 243 | 67% |
| Japan | 6 | 109 | 13% | 0 | — |
| China | 8 | 66 | 8.0% | 100 | 28% |
| France | 3 | 9 | 1.1% | 0 | — |
| Spain | 1 | 6 | 0.7% | 0 | — |
| Finland | 1 | 4 | 0.5% | 0 | — |
| United States | 2 | 3 | 0.4% | 4 | 1.1% |
| Italy | 1 | 2 | 0.2% | 0 | — |
| Germany | 1 | 1 | 0.1% | 0 | — |
| Norway | 1 | 1 | 0.1% | 0 | — |
| Singapore | 1 | 1 | 0.1% | 0 | — |
| Russia | 1 | 0 | — | 15 | 4.1% |
Shares are of the 822 operating and 362 under-construction vessels that name a yard with a position. Proposed ships have no yard yet and are not counted.
Every yard on the map
One row per yard and position, most vessels first.
Common questions
Each answer stands on its own.
- Which country builds the most LNG ships?
- South Korea built 620 of the 822 operating vessels whose yard the tracker names (75%), across 6 yards. The count is every vessel type the tracker holds, carriers, FSRUs and floating storage units alike.
- Where are LNG ships being built now?
- South Korea holds the most vessels under construction, 243 of 362. Ships under construction are a commitment, not fleet in service, so they are drawn as rings on the map and counted in their own column, never added to the operating vessels.
- Why are the dots so close together in East Asia?
- The yards there sit within a few degrees of each other, some under ten kilometres apart, so the closer view shows 16 of the 32 yards with a position. Where two overlap, the table lists each separately.
- How exact are the yard positions?
- They are the coordinates GEM gives for each yard, almost all marked exact and a few marked approximate, as the table shows. They locate a yard to a town or a shipyard site, which is enough for a map at this scale but not for surveying.
- Are all vessels placed on the map?
- 1,184 operating and under-construction vessels are, each at a named yard with a position. 2 under construction name a yard but give no position and are left out. The 34 proposed ships are not drawn, since most have no yard yet; nothing is guessed.
Cite this page
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