Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE) said Thursday it has signed deals worth 566 billion won ($502 million) with companies from Asia, Europe and Africa to build seven ships.

Under a 247 billion-won deal with an Asian company, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., a unit of KSOE, will deliver two 98,000-cubic-meter ethanol carriers by January 2023, KSOE said.

The vessels, which are 230 meters long, 36.6 meters wide and 22.8 meters high, were ordered for the first time this year across the globe, the company said.

The 82.6 billion-won deal with a European company calls for Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co., another unit of KSOE, to deliver two 50,000-ton petrochemicals carriers by July 2022.

Two 91,000-cubic-meter liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers to be built by Hyundai Heavy Industries will be delivered beginning in the second half of 2022.

Engines to be powered by duel fuels, including LPG, will be mounted on the large-scale LPG carriers to meet the environmental regulations of the International Maritime Organization that went into effect in 2020, which call for lowering the sulfur cap on ships' fuel content from 3.5 percent to 0.5 percent, KSOE said.

Hyundai Mipo Dockyard also will deliver one 23,000-cubic-meter LPG carrier by the first half of 2022. (Yonhap)