South Korea’s shipbuilding majors have added more than 5 trillion won ($4.5 billion) in their order book in just two months into the year, extending their heyday since the year-end.

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE), the shipbuilding holding company of Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, led the pack with 2.41 trillion won worth orders for 27 vessels placed over the last two months.

KSOE disclosed on Monday that it secured a contract to build nine vessels including three very large crude carriers (VLCC) for an Asian client at 540 billion won after 594 billion won deal earlier this month and 499.1 billion won worth in January.

Samsung Heavy Industries Co. bagged 1.9 trillion won worth of deals in the January-February period on vessels running on low-carbon gas fuel, including a 458.7 billion won order for four units of VLCC and a 781.2 billion won order for five units of container vessels.

Samsung Heavy Industries drew 26 out of 46 LNG-fueled VLCC orders so far this year.

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME) is also off to a good start, winning 656.3 billion-won orders so far.

The three shipbuilders booked 5 trillion won worth, achieving 15.5 percent of their combined annual order goal in the first two months of the year. A year-ago, their orders stopped at 639.7 billion won orders for five vessels.

Samsung Heavy Industries have achieved the largest 22 percent of its yearly goal amounting to $7.8 billion. KSOE, which has set the highest yearly goal among the three shipyards of $14.9 billion, has met 14.6 percent, and DSME 7.7 percent of its annual goal of $7.7 billion.

Korean shipbuilders are expected to extend their hot streak as Qatar Petroleum, the state-run petroleum company of the Middle Eastern country, is to place orders for LNG-powered vessels this year. Last year, it had signed a non-binding contract for 100 vessels worth 23.6 trillion won with Korean shipbuilders.

By Song Gwang-sup and Lee Soo-min

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]