China’s Cosco Shipping LNG is looking at shipyard berths as it sizes up its options for a clutch of LNG carrier newbuildings.

Sources working on LNG newbuilding projects said the shipping giant has been in talks with local shipyards, particularly ­China’s main LNG carrier builder — Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuild­ing (Group) — over a possible order for four firm vessels.

They indicated that the newbuildings would be used to take on transshipped cargoes of LNG, which would be exported from Russia via the Northern Sea Route (NSR).