Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering has won a $2 billion order from A.P. Moeller-Maersk AS to build 10 of the world's biggest type of container ships, a source said on Friday, prompting a jump in the Korean firm's shares. Daewoo is in talks to build a further 10 of the ships for Maersk , the owner of the world's largest container shipping firm, which would mean a total order worth $4 billion and mark the shipbuilder's biggest ever single order.
Daewoo shares jumped more than 8 percent and sent other Korean shipbuilders higher as the news was seen as a sign of confidence in the outlook for trade and raising hopes that further orders would follow. Both Daewoo and Maersk declined to comment. Maersk Line's North Asia chief, Tim Smith, plans to hold a news conference on Monday in Hong Kong over its business plans in Asia. Under the deal, Daewoo will build 10 container ships with a capacity to carry 18,000 twenty-foot-equivalent containers, the largest type of ship available in the sector.