Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co., Ltd.(HD KSOE) announced on Nov. 17 that it has signed a contract with an Asian shipping company for the construction of two 98,000-cubic-meter very large ethane carriers (VLECs), with an order value of US$340 million (about KRW444 billion), at a price of US$170 million per vessel, the highest price for a VLEC.
As a high value-added ship, the new vessel will be built by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries. With an overall length of 230 meters, a breadth of 36.5 meters and a height of 22.8 meters, and a design temperature of -94 degrees Celsius, the vessel is scheduled to be delivered one after another in the first half of 2027, and will be able to transport a wide range of cargoes such as ethane and LPG.
Being the first shipbuilder in Korea to accomplish the annual order target, the shipbuilding division of HD Hyundai Group has recently announced a series of good news of orders, and has won a number of orders for many types of new ships in the global new shipbuilding market.
In the gas carrier sector, on November 14, an African shipowner ordered two 174,000 m3 LNG carriers from HHI at a cost of about $265 million per vessel, scheduled to be delivered to the owner in February 2028.On October 31, Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries signed a 4+4+2 93,000 m3 Very Large Ammonia Carriers (VLACs) Construction Letter of Intent (LOI) at a reported cost of $112 million per vessel, with four confirmed orders to be delivered quarterly by 2027, and was Maersk’s first VLAC order since its inception.
On October 25, HHI signed a contract with Qatar Energy for the construction of 17 174,000-cubic-meter LNG carriers, with an order value of about $3.9 billion, which is scheduled to be delivered sequentially to the shipowner in the second half of 2029, making it the largest single contractual order in South Korea’s shipbuilding industry to date.
In the tanker market, Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries recently signed a contract for the construction of 2 x 158,000 dwt Suezmax tankers with Greek shipowner Arcadia Shipmanagement (Arcadia), with a unit cost of about US$85.2 million, scheduled for delivery in June 2026. Also, HD Hyundai Group Signed a contract with Hayfin, a European shipping investor, for the construction of 2+2 methanol-ready 158,000 dwt Suezmax tankers, with the first 2 vessels scheduled for delivery in March 2026 to the owner.
Including the latest order, HD KSOE has taken orders for 149 new vessels worth US$21.23 so far this year, accomplishing 134.9% of its annual order target of US$15.74 billion. Classified by vessel type, it includes 39 LNG carriers, 37 product tankers, 29 container ships, 26 LPG carriers, 7 tankers, 4 car carriers (PCTC), 2 ethane carriers, 2 liquefied carbon dioxide carriers, 2 medium-sized gas carriers, and 1 FPU.