Samsung Heavy Industries has won orders worth $2.5 billion from European shipowners, according to the firm’s regulatory filings Monday.

It is the shipbuilder’s largest single order achieved since its establishment in 1974.

The shipbuilder said it signed the contract with European shipowners to supply blocks and equipment for ships. The contract period runs until December 2025. The order volume is equivalent to 38.2 percent of last year’s total sales. The value of the order is equivalent to some 100,000 midsized vehicles, according to the firm.

Although Samsung Heavy Industries did not disclose details of the contract, it is highly likely the order is related to Arctic LNG 2, a large-scale liquefied natural gas development project being pushed by Russia, industry watchers said.

Arctic LNG-2, which is the name of a gas field located on the Gyda Peninsula of Russia, refers to a megasized gas field that Russia is developing to produce 19.8 million tons of LNG per year by 2025.

In September last year, Samsung Heavy Industries was selected as a technology partner for an icebreaking LNG carrier to be used for the Arctic LNG 2 project and signed a design contract with Zvezda shipyard in Russia. It also signed a joint construction contract for five icebreaking LNG carriers in November of the same year.

With the latest deal, Samsung Heavy Industries’ order backlog has risen to more than $20 billion in five months since it hit $19.9 billion at the end of June.

The shipbuilder’s accumulated earnings totaled $3.8 billion this year, meeting 45 percent of this year’s order target. Until just before the latest order, the company had achieved an order target of 15 percent this year.

SHI said, “We are likely to win orders from large-scale LNG projects such as in Mozambique and Qatar, and we are anticipating for additional orders from container ships and crude oil carriers, which have recently resumed orders, in the global market.”

“We are working hard to lead the currently signed letter of intent to actual contracts as much as possible within this year.”

Korean shipbuilders have been posting a sound performance this year despite the worldwide pandemic, with Korea Shipbuilding and Offshore Engineering and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering achieving 57.3 percent and 52 percent of this year’s target orders, respectively.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)