By Kim Yoo-chul
Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), the world's biggest shipyard, has won a $1.45 billion containership order from Germany's leading carrier, taking it over $10 billion in contracts this year.
Under the deal with Hapag-Lloyd Container Line, HHI will deliver 10 13,100-TEU containerships, it said, Tuesday.
TEU is a twenty-foot equivalent unit and is the standard unit for describing a ship’s cargo capacity.
The first vessel is due to be delivered at the end of July 2012 and the remainder by November 2013, the Korean shipbuilder said in a regulatory filing to the Korea Exchange (KRX).
``HHI wants to make the most of the chances in the reviving container transport market and strengthen our position,’’ a company spokesman said.
Macquarie said that the tanker sector is seeing more activity, awaiting a full recovery in demand.
``Containership operators remain wary of the strength of the economic recovery in developed nations but volumes for new orders remain firm,’’ said the researcher.
HHI has been close to meeting this year’s $12 billion order target, said the spokesman, adding Hyundai has so far won $10.6 billion worth of shipbuilding orders.
``Bigger ship-owners have shifted their attention to larger containerships, raising the possibility of winning more orders,’’ said the official.
Container vessel operators have seen a rebound in container volumes and freight rates this year.
The top 20 carriers of the world posted collective operating profits of $3.8 billion in the first half of 2010. This compared with a collective loss of $6.9 billion in the same period last year, said market research firms.
``The shipbuilding industry will see another boon from 2012, while the timing for the shipping industry has been set from 2013,’’ said Park Seung-hyun, an analyst at IBK Securities, in a memo to clients.