Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries said Monday it has bagged a 3.93 trillion-won ($3.1 billion) order to build 16 container ships for an Asian shipper, according to Yonhap.
The 16,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) vessels powered by methanol will be delivered to the undisclosed shipping company in stages by December 2027, Samsung Heavy Industries said in a regulatory filing.
It marks the single-largest order clinched by Samsung Heavy Industries, breaking the previous record of a 3.33 trillion-won order to construct 12 liquefied natural gas carriers, which it won in June last year.
So far this year, Samsung Heavy Industries has obtained orders worth $6.3 billion to build 25 ships, or 66 percent of its 2023 target of $9.5 billion.
The ships include six LNG carriers, two oil tankers, 16 container vessels and a floating LNG gas facility.
A company official said the company will have no difficulty achieving its yearly order target for the third straight year in 2023, given the current pace of clinching deals.
With the latest order, Samsung Heavy's order backlog stands at a five-year high of $33.6 billion, or 163 vessels, the company said.
Samsung Heavy is the shipbuilding arm of Korea's top family-controlled conglomerate, Samsung Group, whose marquee unit is Samsung Electronics.