Hyundai to build biggest container ship for China

SEOUL - Agence France-Presse

Hyundai is to construct the world’s largest container ships for China. REUTERS photo

South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries said yesterday that it had won a $700 million deal to build the world’s largest container ships for China Shipping Container Lines.

Under the deal signed with China’s number two shippers, the world’s largest shipbuilder will build five vessels, each capable of carrying 18,400 TEU (20-foot equivalent unit) container boxes, Hyundai said in a statement. The ships will be the world’s largest, breaking the previous record of another South Korean firm, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine, which won an order in 2011 to build 20 18,000 TEU container ships for Denmark’s A.P. Moeller-Maersk.

Delivery of the mega-vessels will begin in the latter half of 2014, Hyundai said. Each ship will boast a 400 meter (yard) long deck, and stand 58.6 meters wide and 30.5 meters high.

They will feature electronically-controlled main engines that automatically adjust fuel consumption in line with sailing speed and sea conditions, helping to improve fuel efficiency, reduce noise and cut emissions.

The deal takes the value of Hyundai Heavy’s order book so far this year to $9.7 billion, about 40 percent of its annual target of $23.8 billion.