South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries Co. won a $240 million order from Canadian marine energy transportation company Teekay Corp. to build two 130,000 deadweight tonnage (DWT) shuttle tankers, the shipbuilder said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday.

A shuttle tanker is a vessel designed to transport oil from an offshore plant to an onshore storage facility. A majority of shuttle tankers are currently operated in the North Sea and the Barents Sea in Europe, eastern part of Canada, as well as in offshore oil fields in Brazil.

With the latest order from Teekay, Samsung Heavy Industries that first built a shuttle tanker in Korea in 1995 has won the seven shuttle tanker orders placed worldwide so far this year, solidifying its leading position in the shuttle tanker building sector. Of the entire 126 shuttle tanker orders that have been placed so far globally, Samsung Heavy Industries has won 52 of them, accounting for the largest 41.3 percent market share.

The company also boasted its technology prowess with its latest order that is to build shuttle tankers to be run by environmentally-friendly liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuel. Six of the seven shuttle tanker orders placed so far this year, including two by Teekay, will be LNG-run vessels.

Samsung Heavy Industries expects that global demand for shuttle tanker is expected to grow as most shuttle tankers that are currently in operation are old vessels that would soon require replacement, and global oil companies are speeding up exploration and development of new oil fields in the ocean amid the recovery in the global economy.

In line with growing demand, the company expects to earn additional orders including the option to build two more shuttle tankers for Teekay under the latest deal.

Samsung Heavy Industries has clinched total 27 ship orders so far this year valued at $6.7 billion, already surpassing its annual order target.

By Woo Je-yoon and Lee Eun-joo

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]