HD Hyundai Samho has announced the formal signing of a contract for the construction of four container vessels, marking the entry into force of all eight 16,000 TEU methanol dual-fuel very large container vessels recently announced by Wan Hai Lines of Taiwan, China.
On November 29, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (HD KSOE), the intermediate holding company for HD Hyundai Group’s shipbuilding business, announced that it has received an order worth $788 million from an Asian shipowner for the construction of four container vessels. The vessels, with a unit cost of approximately $197 million, will be built by HD Hyundai Samho and are expected to be delivered in November 2028.
HD KSOE has not announced the name of the owner, but it is expected to be Wan Hai Lines. At the end of October, Wan Hai Lines made an announcement that it would sign a contract for the newbuilding of four 16,000 TEU methanol dual-fuel container vessels with South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries and HD Hyundai Samho, respectively. At that time, the price and delivery date were not yet clear.
On November 25, Samsung Heavy Industries announced a contract for four 16,000 TEU container vessels, expected to be delivered in December 2027 for Wan Hai Lines. The cost of a single vessel is about $196.5 million and the total value of the four vessels is $786 million.
With the announcement of the HD Hyundai Samho contract, Wan Hai Lines has landed all of its eight orders for 16,000 TEU methanol dual-fuel container vessels, to be delivered between December 2027 and November 2028.The total value of the eight orders is approximately $1.57 billion.
As part of its commitment to decarbonizing its fleet, Wan Hai Lines is placing orders for methanol dual-fuel container vessels. In addition to this batch of eight large container ships, the shipping company also announced 20 medium-sized methanol fueled container vessels in August this year.
In August this year, Wan Hai Lines announced the signing of a letter of intent to build up to 20 methanol-fueled container vessels with a total value of up to $3 billion, which will be built by two shipyards in China and South Korea. Among them, CSBC Corporation, Taiwan is expected to build 12+4 8000TEU methanol dual-fuel container vessels, and HD Hyundai Samho will build 4 8700TEU methanol dual-fuel container vessels.
Later in September, Wan Hai Lines and HD Hyundai Samho formally signed a contract for four 8,700 TEU methanol dual-fuel container vessels, with a single vessel cost of about $128 million and a total order value of about $510 million, which are scheduled to be delivered in May 2027.
Wan Hai Lines currently operates 123 vessels with a total capacity of 530,000 TEU, ranking 11th among global container operators.