[Yonhap News Agency/ 0ctober 16, 2023] South Korean shipyard HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. said Monday it will build two mid-sized, ammonia-powered ships for the first time in the world.

HD Korea Shipbuilding said it will install an ammonia dual-fuel engine in the 45,000-cubic meter liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers, whose order it won from Belgian-based shipping company Exmar in March this year.

Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co., one of HD Korea Shipbuilding's three units, will construct the 190-meter-long, 30.4-meter-wide LPG carriers, at its shipyard in the southeastern industrial port of Ulsan for delivery by May 2026.

Those vessels will be powered not only by ammonia but also gases, including LPG, that they carry, HD Korea Shipbuilding said.

HD Korea Shipbuilding said it will be the first shipbuilder in the world to construct an ammonia-powered vessel.

In 2020, HD Korea Shipbuilding obtained an approval in principle for ammonia-powered dual-fuel engines from Lloyd's Register for the first time among local shipbuilders, with the aim of commercializing them by 2025.

In August 2021, the company succeeded in developing an ammonia fuel supply system for the first time in the world.

HD Korea Shipbuilding, a subholding company of shipbuilding, oil refining and machinery conglomerate HD Hyundai, has three domestic units under its wing -- HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hyundai Mipo Dockyard and Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co.