Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE) has raked in orders for 10 newbuildings from five separate shipping companies.
In a regulatory filing, the Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings unit that controls shipyards within the group, put the total value of the contracts at KRW 1.1trn, or $1bn at the time of the disclosure before the Korean won weakened.
KSOE did not disclose the identity of the companies behind the contracts. But it said the orders involved two 174,000-cbm LNG carriers worth KRW 438bn, one VLCC, three VLGC newbuildings and four 115,000-dwt product tankers.
The pair of LNG ships, which are due for delivery by the end of 2023, will be constructed by Ulsan-based Hyundai Heavy Industries.
KSOE said a European company is behind the order of the 300,000-dwt crude carrier. The VLCC will be built by Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries and is due for delivery by the second half of 2023.
The shipbuilding group said that one of the three 91,000-cbm VLGC newbuildings was ordered by an unnamed Greek owner.
“Of three LPG carriers, two will be built by HHI and the third will be constructed by Hyundai Samho,” KSOE said.
The company said subsidiary Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (HMD) has won an order for four 115,000-dwt LR2 newbuildings from a European company. The contract value of the quartet is KRW 256.6bn.
Shipbuilding players said HMD’s sister shipyard — Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding — has been assigned the task of constructing the LR tanker newbuildings. The order marks the MR tanker specialist’s debut in aframax tankers.
Hyundai Vietnam is slated to deliver the quartet by March 2024.
With the latest orders, KSOE said it has won orders worth $12.2bn so far this year, achieving contracts for 140 ships or 82% of its annual order target of $14.9bn.
KSOE added that $7.08bn of the newbuildings contracts were secured by HHI. The volume of orders is five times more than last year's contracts. Mokpo-based Hyundai Samho saw its order volume grow more than 11-fold from the previous year to $2.39bn, while HMD’s orders trebled to $2.53bn.
