South Korea’s largest shipbuilder Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. added 441.8 billion won ($373.7 million) worth order for two liquefied natural gas carriers from a domestic client.

The shipbuilder under Hyundai Heavy Industries Group will be building the two LNG carriers for Korea Line Corp. The firm said Thursday the contract was signed on the previous day.

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering shares opened Thursday up 1.41 percent in Seoul. The stock closed the day down 1.95 percent at 90,300 won.

The two LNG carriers will be capable of transporting 174,000 cubic meters of LNG, each. They will be constructed at Hyundai Heavy Industries’s Ulsan dockyard on South Korea’s southeastern coast for delivery in the second half of 2023. The vessels will be hired by LNG giant Shell.

The latest contract marks the third order Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering bagged in just two weeks. On July 30, the shipbuilder signed two contracts of building four LNG carriers in total. The contracts, which are worth 445.6 billion won each, were the first LNG shipbuilding deal struck in the country this year.

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering has secured total worth of $1.42 billion contracts since July, including six LNG carriers. Other vessels from the latest orders are six petrochemical carriers and one roll-on/roll-off passenger ferry.

By Choi Keun-do and Cho Jeehyun

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