By shipbuilder, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., the world's top shipyard, has clinched deals to build 25 LNG ships this year. The comparable figures for Samsung Heavy Industries Co. and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. are 14 and 17.

Driven by such a sharp rise in new LNG ship orders, the country's major shipbuilders have almost met their annual order target for the year.

Hyundai Heavy has bagged orders valued at a combined $13.4 billion, already surpassing this year's order target of $13.2 billion.

Daewoo Shipbuilding also achieved over 90 percent of its annual order goal of $7.3 billion and Samsung Heavy met some 67 percent of its annual order target of $8.2 billion.

Demand for LNG carriers has been on a steady increase due to a rise in LNG demand in line with eco-friendly policies in China and the proactive push for energy exports by the United States.

Park Moo-hyun, an analyst at Hana Financial Investment Corp., said the price of a LNG carrier will rise to some $250 million in a year, a sharp increase from the $187 million level seen earlier this year. (Yonhap)