HYUNDAI Heavy Industries Co, the world's largest shipyard, said it received an order for eight large container vessels valued at 1.21 trillion won (US$1.3 billion), its biggest contract this year.

The ships, each with a capacity of more than 10,000 20-foot standard containers, are for a company in Europe and will be delivered by March 31, 2011, the South Korea-based company said yesterday. It didn't name the buyer.

The contract raises Hyundai Heavy's tally of orders won in 2007 to about US$11 billion, more than 80 percent of its full-year target. Yards in South Korea, the world's biggest shipbuilding country, are set for a fifth year of record orders. Samsung Heavy Industries Co and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co, both based in Seoul, raised their targets this month.

Hyundai Heavy's shipbuilding order backlog at the end of June was US$29.03 billion, about a third higher than a year earlier.

Shares of Hyundai Heavy dropped 5.2 percent, the biggest decline in a month, to 349,500 won in Seoul. The stock has almost tripled this year, the best performer among the 50 largest companies in South Korea's Kospi index.