Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) has won a $800m contract from South Korea-based dry bulk shipping service provider Polaris Shipping to build ten very large ore carriers (VLOCs).
The deal is the biggest single order received by HHI in the last five years. In 2012, HHI secured an order from a Greek shipping company to build ten large-sized containerships.
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Each vessel being built as part of the new order will be 340m-long, 62m-wide and 29.8m-high.
The vessels will feature LNG Ready design to meet environmental regulations and reduce fuel consumption.
They will also be equipped with a ballast water treatment system and a desulfurization equipment scrubber.
Deliveries of the new 325,000dwt VLOCs are scheduled to be carried out by 2021.
An HHI official said: "Even under unfavourable market conditions, we have proven our competitiveness with a big order contract in five years.
“We are beefing up our marketing efforts to meet clients’ needs on the back of our eco-friendly technologies.”
HHI has so far secured 20 shipbuilding orders from Polaris Shipping and has delivered seven vessels, including four 250,000t VLOCs ordered in 2013.
In March this year, HHI’s shipbuilding affiliate Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries (HSHI) had been selected by Russia’s state-owned shipping company Sovcomflot to build four 114,000dwt Ice-Class IA aframax tankers.
Image: HHI Corporate Planning Office executive vice-president Chung Ki-sun is shaking hands with Polaris Shipping CEO Kim Wan-jung. Photo: courtesy of Hyundai Heavy Industries Co Ltd.
