South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME) won a 926.6 billion won ($820 million) deal to build very large container ships for a European shipping company, the biggest deal for the Korean shipbuilder in two years.

DSME announced in a regulatory filing on Thursday that it has inked a contract worth 926.6 billion won to build five very large container ships for a European company. The shipbuilder did not disclose the name of the shipping company, but it is reportedly Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), the world’s second largest shipping company based in Geneva, Switzerland that has been negotiating with DSME and Samsung Heavy Industries Co. to construct 11 very large container carriers with a cargo capacity of 22,000 twenty-foot equivalent (TEU).

Including the latest contract, DSME has obtained orders of 23 new vessels worth $2.57 billion so far this year, accounting for 56.2 percent of its annual sales target of $4.57 billion. The company already exceeded the sales goal of $2 billion, the condition set by its largest shareholder Korea Development Bank (KDB) for the additional bailout for the shipbuilder in March.

Following the DSME deal, Samsung Heavy Industries is expected to sign a contract with MSC next week to build the remaining six container ships, worth nearly 1 trillion won, according to sources.

By Moon Ji-woong

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