On April 7 2017, Hyundai Merchant Marine singed a letter of intent (LOI) with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) to build five 300,000-ton VLCCs with an option of five more vessels.
HMM has formed a ‘newbuilding examination committee’ at the end of last year, and has thoroughly reviewed all the conditions for newbuilding including demand/type/number of vessels, market trend, and investment feasibility etc.
Final agreement will be concluded by the end of July, and discussion about LNG carrier engine & Eco-friendly technology will be also made
This newbuilding deal is the first case of using New Shipbuilding Program with a pot of KRW 2.6 trillion ($2.28 billion), which Korean government announced on last October to support the shipping industry.
HMM also plans to order small-medium sized container vessels other than VLCC.