Thank you, and welcome to this presentation. So, as customary, I will give you some insight in the key highlights of the first nine months, as well as an update on the LNG market, and following which, I will be, of course, happy to take any questions you might have. I will skip slides two and three, the disclaimers. I'm sure you will read those carefully in your own time, but start with the presentation. Let's move to slide four, key highlights. So, the revenues for the first nine months of 2017 were EUR 168.5 million, down 4.6% compared to the first nine months of last year. This is, of course, mainly due to the low level of orders recorded in 2016. You remember that we have recorded only five orders in 2016.
The movement in the order book during the first 9 months: we had 24 deliveries and 14 new orders, 8 for LNG carriers, 5 FSRUs, and 1 FLNG. And this includes 1 FSRU order which was received in the third quarter of this year. So, the order book stands now at 86 units at the 30th of September, 70 LNG carriers, 11 FSRUs, 2 FLNGs, 2 onshore storage, and 1 LNG bunker barge. Now, I'll move to the market indicators on slide 5. First of all, the Asian LNG imports, we see that they continue to grow in 2017. The chart on the left of the slide represents the comparison of demand between 2017 and 2016 for the top 5 LNG importers. You can see on that slide that Japan remains at a high level, while demand in China and South Korea continued to increase quite sharply.
The little triangles show the growth rate from year to year. This is due to two main drivers, first of all, which are actually connected or related: coal-to-gas switch and environmental consideration. This is particularly true in China and South Korea, where we have observed a progressive slowdown of coal production and consumption, a trend which we expect to strengthen in the mid to long term. Now, this trend is also reinforced or boosted by the evolution of gas and coal prices. I am now moving to slide six. The desire to decarbonize the energy mix is supported by the relatively low level of gas prices. You see that on the chart that the European natural gas is now cheaper, significantly cheaper than coal. And the price of China LNG, excuse me, is broadly in line with the price of coal.
So, this clearly encourages a switch from coal to gas in two areas. Of course, in the power mix, where there is a move from coal-fired power plants to gas-fired power plants, this is true in China and South Korea, India, and also in Europe, but also in transports, in particular in China, because, as you know, China uses LNG as a fuel for trucks, for example, and it's quite an important market. Maybe as a reminder, the target in China by the government is to move from 10% of natural gas in the energy mix consumption by 2020 versus today, 5%-6%. Next slide, number seven. Here, we are looking at the comparison between the US LNG price and the Asian price. Now, this is a little bit of a busy chart, so I'll try and, first of all, give you an overview of the chart.
So, the red line is the curve or the line of the Asian LNG price, and this price is, in fact, indexed on the oil price. So, you see the formula at the bottom there. The slope of that line is 40% of the oil price plus a constant of $0.50. And then, you can see that there has been an evolution between the U.S. price, which is computed on the basis of the other formula based on Henry Hub plus tolling fees, sorry, shipping, etc. So, that allows us to see whether the LNG coming from the U.S. is more competitive than the Asian LNG. So, if you're above the red curve, you're less competitive. The U.S. LNG price is less competitive. And if you're below the curve, your U.S. LNG price is more competitive. And you see the average for 2017 below the line.
You're looking at the price of $7.1 compared to an Asian price at $8 per million BTU. So, clearly, there has been an improvement in the competitiveness of the U.S. LNG compared to Asian LNG compared to last year, where we were just above the line, as you can see on the graph. Now, in addition to that, U.S. LNG presents also an advantage in terms of it is a source of diversification for Asian and European buyers, as it is a way clearly to avoid oil indexation. So, this chart does support our trust or our confidence on the development of U.S. projects. Moving to slide number 8, here we are looking at the spot market, the evolution of charter rates, which has been improving, which have been improving since the month of May.
That's, of course, a function of the decrease in the number of available ships, which has been reducing quite also quite significantly since February. As a matter of example, the charter rates at the beginning of October were $45,000 per day compared to $30,000 in April. There is a bit more tension in that market. We expect this trend to continue, especially as new supply projects will be coming on stream in the latter part of this year, for example, Sabine Pass T4, Wheatstone, Yamal. Moving on to slide number nine, we are here looking at the liquefaction projects, which are currently under construction. The large majority of those are expected to start in time, and we expect, as we have already mentioned, that around 50 vessels should be ordered in relation to these projects under construction. There are some downside risks, clearly.
The evolution of the trading in the spot market with swaps, so that would imply shorter routes, so a decrease in shipping intensity, and also possibly startup delays or slower ramp-up than expected on those projects. On the other hand, there are new FIDs ahead. In 2027, we have Fortuna FLNG, which is a 2.2 million tons per annum project. In 2018, a number of projects which are listed here. So, clearly, that reinforces our expectations for ship orders in the short term, what we call the short term, which means the next two to three years. So, to sum up, I will now give you a breakdown of the nine months' 2017 revenues. I mentioned EUR 169 million. Revenues from royalties were down 6.3% at EUR 157.1 million. For LNG carriers, -8.2%.
The reason, as I mentioned at the beginning of this presentation, being the low level of orders in 2016. Whereas when it comes to FSRUs, we've had an increase of a strong increase of 14.8%, and also in FLNG of 12.7%. Also, revenues from services have grown quite significantly, +26.6% at EUR 11.4 million. This is attributable to studies, principally, and maintenance contracts for ships currently in service. This leads us to slide 11 to confirm our outlook for 2017. Just to reconfirm, 2017 revenues are estimated to be in the range of EUR 225 million-EUR 240 million, net margin above 50%. In terms of dividends, a 2017 dividend amount at least equivalent to that of 2015 and 2016. For the following years, 2018, 2019, a payout of at least 80%.
Of course, the amount of dividend actually paid is subject to approval by the annual general meeting. So, that's it for the presentation. I'll be happy to take your questions now.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Please make sure that the mute function on your telephone is switched off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. Once again, you may press star one to ask a question. Our first question is coming from Raphaël Veverka from Exane BNP Paribas. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hello. Good evening
Good evening, Raphaël.
I had just a few questions on my side. First, if you look at the run rate of the royalty revenues for the first nine months, it is lagging behind what would be implied by the backlog figures you provided at H1 results, which were in the range of EUR 225 million, if I remember well. So, are you expecting some significant catch-up in invoicing during Q4, or has there been some delays and some revenue which has been postponed to 2018?
Nothing of significance. I mean, this is all due to the actual situation in terms of revenue recognition. So, there's nothing significant to be mentioned here, Raphaël.
We would still expect royalty revenues to be in the range of EUR 225 million for 2017. I'm just trying to have a clearer.
Precisely. Precisely. Yes.
Okay. Great.
Now, you know, just maybe to add a little bit of color to that, construction periods for ships, which were typically, if you include the study period, which were typically and historically of around three years, tend to be shorter now. So, you're looking at periods maybe closer even to two years now. So, that, of course, has also an impact on revenue recognition compared to the past, just to give you a little hint.
Yeah. Thank you. And actually, that was my follow-up question, if we could have an update of your backlog in value and how it is split between 2018, 2019, and 2020. If possible, that would be great.
You know very well, Raphaël, that at Q1 and Q3, we do not provide that information.
Okay.
Sorry.
Okay. And last one, actually, two last ones. First, if you could share your expectation regarding services revenue, or if we could give maybe a bit of color for the next couple of quarters.
I would be tempted to give you the same answer, but you see the trend is a positive one, so we hope it will carry on that way.
Okay. Okay. And last one, also a fairly usual question, obviously, but if there are any new developments or color to give regarding the KFTC investigation?
I'm afraid I have to give the same answer I've been giving for quite a while. Nothing new at the moment.
Okay. Okay. Thank you very much .
You're welcome.
The next question is coming from Guillaume Delaby from Société Générale. Please go ahead.
Yes. Thank you very much for taking my question, you gave a pretty macro presentation, meaning that maybe one of the messages you want to share with us is the fact that you believe the macro is changing a little bit. According to you, what are, I would say, the main changes you saw today versus, let's say, at the end of July?
Guillaume, you are trying to read my mind. To be honest, I don't see any significant change from what we have expressed in July. I think here we just wanted to give a bit of color on some indicators which look positive. I mean, certainly, charter rates, I mean, there have been recent articles in the press also mentioning that the market was getting a bit tighter on the spot market. And so, we wanted to highlight that. I mean, otherwise, the message is clear. I mean, we're looking at strong demand from Asia, and we're looking at supply from the U.S. So, no significant change from the messages we provided in the first half.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you.
As a reminder, you may press star one to ask a question. Our next question is coming from Kevin Roger from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hi. Good evening. I have a question, please, regarding the backlog. And it's going to be a follow-up from the question of Raphaël. When we look at the phasing of your backlog at the end of H1, you were supposed to deliver 16 vessels in H2, and you only delivered 3 vessels this quarter. So, I was wondering if you expect to deliver 13 vessels in Q4, or if you experience slight delay from 2017 to 2018, because only 3 deliveries is quite low for this quarter.
Yes. I think, again, I don't think there is much to be read from that. There is no specific situation in terms of delays. I mean, there are always some delays, but they do not necessarily change from one year to the next. So, frankly, there is not much to read from that. Of course, deliveries can slip one month or be, but there's no, again, no particular trend here.
We can assume that you will deliver 13 vessels in Q4?
Well, I will not comment, but if you look at the math, yeah, that's probably order of magnitude. We will not be delivering. The shipyards will be.
Yeah. Okay. Thanks.
There is currently no more questions over the phone, but as a reminder, you may press star one to ask a question. We have no further questions over the phone, sir.
Okay. Well, thank you very much, everybody, and for attending this presentation. No doubt, we will be talking again soon. Have a good evening.