South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Mipo Dockyard has terminated a contract for four pure car truck carriers (PCTC) worth $155 million (KRW 171.8 billion).
The contract for the 7,500-ceu car carriers with an unnamed Marshall Islands-based company had been signed in 2015.
In 2016, the shipowner inked a deal with Hyundai to change the delivery dates for the newbuilds from 2018 to 2020. A year after, the contract was changed from four PCTC units to two vehicle carriers and two PC ships.
Hyundai Mipo said that the reason behind the contract termination was that the owner could not secure charters for the vessels.
The car carrier market has been hit hard by the pandemic amid a major drop in automotive consumer demand putting a considerable portion of the global fleet out of work.
Multiple estimates have shown that one in three car carrier vessels have become idled over the past few months as a result of the pandemic’s impact on the demand.
HMD’s orders year to date stands at $4.35 billion, down by 7.4% year-on-year, according to the data from the Business Korea.