HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (HD KSOE) bagged a 491.1 billion won ($366 million) order to build three very large ammonia carriers (VLACs) for an undisclosed shipper based in Central and South America, the shipyard said Monday.
HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, one of HD KSOE’s three shipbuilding units, will construct the vessels at its shipyard in the southeastern port of Ulsan, the company said in a regulatory filing.
The ammonia carriers will be delivered to the undisclosed shipping company by June 2028.
HD Korea Shipbuilding has clinched orders to build 32 vessels worth $3 billion, or 22.2 percent of its yearly target of $13.5 billion, so far in 2024.
The above three newbuilding orders are the third VLAC shipbuilding contracts signed by HD KSOE this year. On January 8, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries took an order for two 88,000 m3 VLACs from Turkish owner PascoGas, valued at about $240 million, which are expected to be delivered by March 2027 sequentially. It is the world’s first VLAC order for 2024.Ten days later (January 18), HD Hyundai Heavy Industries signed a contract with a Greek shipping company, Alpha Gas, for the construction of two VLACs, with a total order value of about KRW333 billion ( about US$250 million), to be delivered in April 2027.
Except for the seven VLACs mentioned above, Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, a subsidiary of HD KSOE, signed a contract with Nakilat, a Qatari LNG shipping operator and liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipping company, for the construction of four 88,000 m3 ultra-large liquefied petroleum gas (VLGC)/liquefied ammonia carriers on Jan. 9th. Together with the four VLGC/VLACs ordered by Nakilat, HD KSOE has undertaken 11 VLACs this year.