ULSAN < invest Korea

South Korea’s largest shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. bagged a $400 million order to build five very large ore carriers (VLOC) from Seoul-based shipper Polaris Shipping Co., the company said on Monday.

Polaris Shipping upon placing an $800 million order with Hyundai Heavy Industries for 10 VLOCs last month had the option to place additional shipbuilding orders. As a result, Hyundai Heavy Industries is responsible for building 15 VLOCs for the shipper worth a combined $1.2 billion.

Polaris Shipping has advanced VLOC orders following a recently signed charter deal with world’s largest iron ore producer Vale SA.

The new VLOCs would be 340 meters long, 62 meters wide and 29.9 meters high and built at a dockyard of Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co. located in southern coastal city Yeongam. The new vessel would be fitted with features like equilibrium water treatment device and scrubber for reducing sulfur dioxide emission to meet environmental regulations. Also, it will adopt the liquefied natural gas (LNG)-ready design, which would allow the ships to run on LNG as well as bunker fuel.

Polaris Shipping believes Hyundai Heavy Industries has the world’s best technology for building high-efficiency and environmentally-friendly vessels, said an unnamed Polaris Shipping.

The company had all of its latest 18 VLOCs worth nearly 1.7 trillion won ($1.5 billion) built by Hyundai Heavy Industries and its units.

The latest order would make the single-largest deal for the Korean shipbuilder in five years after it clinched a deal from a Greece-based shipping firm in 2012 to build 10 large containers.

Hyundai Heavy Industries and its two shipbuilding affiliates have won a combined $6.7 billion worth of orders so far this year to build 110 vessels, meeting 90 percent of its goal of $7.5 billion set for this year.

Shares of Hyundai Heavy Industries closed Monday at 148,000 won, down 3,500 won or 2.31 percent from the previous session



By Moon Ji-woong and Cho Jeehyun

Copyrights Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea. All Rights Reserved.

Source: Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea (Oct. 23, 2017)