Korea Shipbuilding clinches $526M deal from Europe
KOREA Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering on December 21 said it had clinched a deal worth 582 billion won ($526 million) for seven vessels with European shipping companies.
The Korean shipbuilder said it has signed the contract to build four 13,200 twenty-foot-equivalent-unit (TEU) container vessels, two 40,000sqm liquefied petroleum gas carriers and one product carrier, for the companies in Europe, unidentified.
The four container vessels, which are 335m in length, 51m in width and 27.3m in height, will be produced by Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, and delivered to the purchasers by the second half of 2022, the company said.
According to Korea Shipbuilding, the container ships have been designed with twice the freezing container space, meeting the global market trend. The vessels have also been equipped with Hi-PSD, an energy solution, to reduce CO2 emissions by three per cent and raise the cost efficiency by six per cent, the company added.
An official from Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering said: “There are inquiries about various types of vessels, and we may win additional orders this year.
“We will reinforce our foothold in the market with advanced technologies to reflect the global trend.”
According t o Clarksons Research’s September report, purchases of container vessels have been depressed in recent months due to the reduced cargo volumes affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
But the market is bouncing back, and the analysis agency forecasted that global purchases of container ships would grow by about 72 per cent to 187 units next year, from this year’s 109 units.