A container carrier built by the HJ Shipbuilding & Construction shipyard / Courtesy of HJ Shipbuilding & Construction

Korean shipyard HJ Shipbuilding & Construction said Thursday it has clinched a $240 million order to build two eco-friendly container carriers for a European shipper.

The company said it will build the 7,700 twenty-foot equivalent unit container vessels with liquefied natural gas dual-fuel engines at its shipyard and deliver them to the undisclosed shipping company from late 2024.

HJ Shipbuilding & Construction, formerly Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction, said the contract contains an option to construct two more container carriers of the same size.

If the option goes into effect, the company's container carrier order backlog would rise to 10 ships, with the value of this year's orders reaching 800 billion won ($616 million), or more than half its yearly target.

The shipyard garnered a $150 million order to build two 5,500-TEU container carriers for a European shipper in March this year, about five months after obtaining a $261 million deal to build four container carriers for the same firm.

In April 2021, a consortium led by local builder Dongbu acquired a controlling stake in Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction from the latter's creditors led by the state-run Korea Development Bank. (Yonhap)