Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE) has confirmed orders for 10 VLCC newbuildings.
The company, which is the holding group for Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings' shipyards, said the deal was worth KRW 986bn ($890.5m).
KSOE said the order would be split between Hyundai Heavy Industries, which will build seven VLCCs, and Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, which will be responsible for the remaining three.
The vessels will be delivered by March 2023 to unidentified customers, the world’s largest shipbuilder said in a regulatory filing.
Market sources said this is KSOE's single largest newbuilding deal this year.
TradeWinds separately understood the newbuildings were ordered by Everest Korea Finance Advisory, which had signed a letter of intent (LOI) with KSOE for 10 VLCCs earlier this month.
The Seoul-based finance company is backed by Chinese investment company Everest Venture Capital, also known as Everest VC, which has offices in Shenzhen and Beijing.
Everest Korea is thought to have not yet secured any charters for the vessels. South Korean sources said Everest has hired HMM Ocean Service to supervise the newbuilding construction.
KSOE said this latest order means it has booked deals for 21 VLCC newbuildings so far this year, some 70% of the VLCCs ordered globally in the year-to-date.
On Tuesday, TradeWinds reported that Greek shipowner Latsco had ordered two VLCCs at Hyundai Heavy Industries for delivery in 2022.
The company, which is led by Paris Kassidokostas-Latsis, was said to be the latest owner to be tempted to order new tonnage in the face of low newbuilding prices.
TradeWinds has reported a number of VLCC newbuilding orders in the past few weeks for the Hyundai yards.
These include orders from the likes of Greek owners Kyklades Maritime and Evangelos Pistiolis and Asian shipowner Cido Shipping.
KSOE is expected to win a few more VLCC orders from Greek owners by the end of this year.
One market source said the Hyundai yards may secure a total of 25 VLCC newbuilding orders or more for the whole of 2020.
Braemar ACM Shipbroking says the current VLCC newbuilding orderbook, prior to these latest orders, stood at 68 vessels, or 8% of the current fleet.
