Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, May 24 -- South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME) received a $384 million order from the Iranian government to build three crude carriers.
Daewoo will construct three 318,000-ton very large crude carriers (VLCC), each worth $128 million, for Iran's state-owned National Iranian Tanker Co. (NITC), with delivery scheduled for October 2009.
In early May, NITC said it would award contracts amounting to $1 billion to South Korea-based shipbuilders Daewoo and Hyundai, and Samho Heavy Industries Co.
In February, NITC issued a tender to shipyards for the construction of five 1-million-bbl Suezmax tankers and five 2-million-bbl VLCCs.
Altogether, NITC has announced plans to order 35 vessels to be built by 2010, including 20 chemical tankers and 10 LNG carriers.
