Attaining 79% of Annual Order Target
Hyundai Heavy Industries announced that it has won an order for two shuttle tankers of 153,000 tons, which is worth US$210 million, from Norway’s KNOT. These vessels will start to be built at the company’s Ulsan dockyard in the first half of 2019 and will be delivered sequentially from June 2020.
The latest deal boosted the combined order receipts of the Hyundai Heavy Industries Group’s three shipbuilding companies (Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hyundae Mipo Duckyard, Hyundae Samho Heavy Industries) to US$10.4 billion as of the end of September 30. The figure represented 79% of the group’s order target for this year of US$13.2 billion. This is the best performance for the first three quarters in five years since the group won orders of 200 vessels worth US$13.9 billion during the same period in 2013. Compared to last year when the group won orders for 103 vessels worth US$6.2 billion in the first three quarters, the figure increased by 60%.
In terms of vessel types, the group won 31 high-value-added gas vessels, including 16 LNG carriers, 12 LPG carriers, and 3 ethane carriers, and received orders for 47 container ships and 47 tankers. Especially with the recovery of the global shipbuilding market, the Korean shipbuilding industry is expected to be profitable with contracts of higher prices compared to last year.
An official from Hyundai Heavy Industries said, "We focused on high value-added vessels such as LNG carriers in line with the recovery of the shipbuilding market. Currently, ship owners keep showing interest, asking questions about LNG and other carriers so we expect to surpass our goal.”
Norway's KNOT has ordered a total of nine shuttle tankers since it ordered a shuttle tanker from Hyundai Heavy Industries in 2011 for the first time.