Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering is leading eco-friendly ship market through winning another deal to build a new concept LNG carrier.

The Korean shipbuilder announced on November 21 that it had inked a newbuilding contract with a customer based in the Americas for a 173,400 cbm LNG carrier. The newbuilding is said to be costing around $200m, slated for delivery till early 2017 upon construction at Daewoo’s Okpo yard.

This contract is regarding an exercised option which was attached to a contract awarded in late July. There are three options left that additional contracts are expected to inked later in the future.

Particularly, this vessel will be equipped with Daewoo’s in-house developed high pressure LNG fuel gas supply system and MAN Diesel & Turbo (MDT)’s ME-GI engine. Thus, the vessels are expected to boast 20% further improved fuel efficiency than existing LNG carriers featuring Dual-Fuel Diesel Electric engine. In addition, they will discharge less pollutant, such as CO2, NOx, SOx and so on, by more than 30% than vessels fitted with diesel engine since they are running on natural gas as main fuel.

Meanwhile, in this year so far, Daewoo has achieved newbuilding contracts for 44 vessels/rigs worth $11.98bn, including commercial ships, offshore products and special ships.