Another order for box ships! HD Hyundai Samho received orders worth 24.7 billion yuan in 100 days.

On July 8, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, the shipbuilding holding company of South Korea's HD Hyundai Group, announced that it has signed a contract with an Oceania shipowner for the construction of four container ships.

These four 13,000 TEU container ships will be built at HD Hyundai Samho in Yeongam County, South Jeolla Province, and are scheduled for delivery by the end of 2028. The total contract value is 834.8 billion won (approximately US\$610 million, or 4.37 billion RMB), equivalent to US\$152.5 million per ship.

For reference, Clarksons' data shows that the price of a new 13,000/14,000 TEU traditional fuel container ship is currently around US\$151 million, remaining unchanged from the same period last year.

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries did not disclose specific information about the shipowner, but according to foreign media reports, the order comes from Korea Line Corporation, and the new ships will be leased by HMM, South Korea's largest shipping company.

This is also the third batch of container ship orders received by HD Hyundai Samho this year, bringing the total number of container ship orders received this year to 10. On April 28, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries announced that it had signed a contract with Capital Maritime, a core shipping company under Greek shipping magnate Evangelos Marinakis, for the construction of four 8,400 TEU container ships. The total contract value is US\$560 million (approximately 4.04 billion RMB), equivalent to US\$140 million per ship. These will be built at HD Hyundai Samho and are scheduled for delivery by the end of June 2028. On May 30, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries announced that it had signed a contract for two 8,400 TEU container ships. The total contract value is 386.8 billion won (approximately US\$280 million, or 2.02 billion RMB), equivalent to US\$140 million per ship. These will be built at HD Hyundai Samho and are scheduled for delivery by the end of June 2028.

It is noteworthy that after receiving "zero orders" in the first quarter of this year, HD Hyundai Samho has started to gain momentum in the second quarter, receiving multiple new ship orders so far, totaling 23 ships and US\$3.45 billion (approximately 24.7 billion RMB). In addition to the aforementioned 10 container ships, this includes two crude oil tankers, five large LNG carriers, and six 157,000-ton Suezmax crude oil tankers.

At the beginning of this year, HD Hyundai Samho set an annual order target of US\$4.5 billion. To date, the value of new ship orders received by HD Hyundai Samho this year has reached approximately 76.7% of its annual target, in less than 100 days.

Including the latest four container ships, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries has received orders for 80 new ships totaling US\$11.11 billion (approximately 79.7 billion RMB) this year, achieving approximately 61.5% of its annual order target of US\$18.05 billion (approximately 132 billion RMB). This includes five LNG carriers, six LNG bunkering vessels, 48 container ships, two very large ethane carriers (VLECs), 11 oil tankers, and eight LPG/ammonia carriers.

South Korean industry insiders say that HD Hyundai Samho's ability to secure a large number of new ship orders in a short period of time is due to the company's continuously improving operational efficiency and significantly shortened dock cycle times, freeing up more berths and creating opportunities for subsequent orders. On June 11, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries announced that the delivery time for four 8,700 TEU container ships ordered by Wan Hai Lines in September last year has been changed from May 15, 2027 to November 30, 2026, an advance of nearly six months.