South Korea’s shipbuilding industry continues its strong performance in the global market as Korean shipbuilders including Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) and STX Offshore & Shipbuilding have successfully won large-scale orders.
HHI announced it received a $1.12 billion order for two units of drillship from Houston-based drilling company Rowan on May 31st, local time. HHI is showing the greatest performance among drillship builders as it has, so far, received orders for nine drill ships in total, amounting to $5 billion. “HHI has won shipbuilding orders worth a total of $11.7 billion as of May, accounting for 60% of the company’s goal to achieve $19.8 billion this year,” an official from the company said.
STX Offshore & Shipbuilding inked a deal with Russia’s Sovcomflot to build two LNG carriers worth $400 million on May 31st. The two companies signed an option that STX will build two more carriers afterwards. As a result, the total contract swells to $ 800 million. The company also clinched a deal with Denmark-based Norden Shipping to construct four units of 50,000-ton petroleum carrier. The $150 million deal includes an option for building two additional carriers.
Earlier, SHI concluded a 3.2 trillion won ($2.98 billion) LNG-FPSO (floating production storage and offloading) deal with Royal Dutch shell at its Geoje Shipyard on May 30th. SHI has won orders for six large LNG carriers as of now, exceeding $10 billion in order value.