Samsung Heavy Industries said Monday that it has signed a 781 billion won ($707 million) deal to build five liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fired container carriers.

Under the deal with an Asian company, the 15,000-foot equivalent unit (TEU) container carriers will be delivered by July 2023, Samsung Heavy Industries said in an emailed statement.

The shipbuilder did not reveal the name of the buyer.

"This year is expected to see a rise in new orders for eco-friendly container carriers thanks to growing demand for replacing old ships," Samsung Heavy Industries said.

Samsung Heavy Industries has bagged $1.3 billion worth of orders, or 10 ships, including nine container carriers, so far this year.

The amount of orders accounted for 17 percent of the shipbuilder's order target for 2021 worth $7.8 billion, which is up 42 percent from its orders of $5.5 billion in 2020.

Shares of Samsung Heavy Industries rose 2.78 percent to 6,660 won as of 9:49 a.m. on the main Seoul bourse. (Yonhap)