South Korea’s three major shipbuilders recorded a combined order backlog of about $130 billion, while HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and Samsung Heavy Industries exceeded their annual merchant vessel order targets during the January-July period.
HD Hyundai Heavy Industries secured cumulative orders of $16.0 billion from January through July, up 88.8% from $8.5 billion in the same period last year.
Its shipbuilding division accounted for $13.1 billion in orders, an increase of 124.7% from $5.8 billion a year earlier. Offshore and plant orders reached $113 million, compared with $41 million in the same period last year, while engine and machinery orders rose 7.7% to $2.8 billion.
Merchant vessel orders reached $12.7 billion, surpassing the company’s annual target of $11.5 billion for the segment. The overall shipbuilding division achieved 90.1% of its annual order target, while engine and machinery reached 105%. The naval vessel and offshore divisions recorded achievement rates of 12.1% and 3.5%, respectively.
Across all divisions, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries had reached 78.2% of its annual order target. Its order backlog on a delivery basis stood at $60.7 billion at the end of July.
Cumulative sales from January through July increased 51.5% to KRW14.3 trillion from KRW9.4 trillion a year earlier. This represented 58.5% of the company’s full-year sales target of approximately KRW24.4 trillion. July sales were KRW2.1 trillion, up 41.8% year on year but down 9.0% from KRW2.3 trillion in the previous month.
Samsung Heavy Industries booked $10.2 billion in new orders during the same period, reaching 73% of its annual target of $13.9 billion.
Merchant vessel orders totalled $5.8 billion, exceeding the segment’s $5.7 billion annual target and reaching 102%. The offshore division secured $4.4 billion in orders, equivalent to 54% of its $8.2 billion target.
At the end of July, Samsung Heavy Industries had an order backlog of $35.4 billion covering 150 vessels and more than three years of workload.
The company expects LNG carrier market conditions to remain favourable beyond the second half of the year, with US LNG export projects cited as one factor. Clarkson Research projects orders for around 125 LNG carriers this year and about 85 next year.
Hanwha Ocean secured 30 new orders from January through July with a combined value of about $5.2 billion. The total comprised 26 merchant vessels, three energy plant units and one special-purpose vessel.
Merchant vessel orders accounted for $4.1 billion, while special-purpose vessels and other orders reached $590 million and energy plant orders totalled $540 million.
Hanwha Ocean has not disclosed a specific annual order target. Its full-year order totals were $9.1 billion in 2024 and $11.6 billion last year.
At the end of July, its delivery-based order backlog stood at $25.3 billion for merchant vessels, $4.9 billion for special-purpose vessels and other work, and $3.7 billion for energy plants, bringing the total to $33.9 billion.
The combined order backlog of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries and Hanwha Ocean reached approximately $130 billion. Analysts expect the figure to exceed KRW200 trillion by year-end.
