KSOE wins 525 bln-won order for 8 ships

SEOUL, Sept. 19 (Yonhap) -- Major South Korean shipyard Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE) said Monday it has bagged a 525 billion-won (US$378 million) order to build eight ships for two African shipping firms.

Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co., a KSOE affiliate, will construct four 1,400-twenty-foot equivalent unit container vessels powered by liquefied natural gas, KSOE said in a regulatory filing.

The container contract carries an option to build two more vessels, and the container carriers will be delivered in stages from the first half of 2025.

Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding, a unit of Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co., will build four 50,000-ton-class petrochemical carriers and deliver them by the second half of 2025, KSOE said.

KSOE didn't disclose the names of the African shippers.

KSOE has clinched $20.35 billion worth of orders to build 176 ships so far this year, or 116.6 percent of its yearly order target of $17.44 billion.

KSOE, a subholding company of shipbuilding, oil refining and machinery conglomerate HD Hyundai, formerly Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings, has three major affiliates -- Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Hyundai Mipo Dockyard and Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries.

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