Japan's biggest shipping company Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) ordered an LNG carrier from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME), South Korea's third biggest shipbuilder.

DSME announced that the 180,000cbm ship would be utilized to service a shipping contract MOL had signed with German energy supplier E.ON.

The ship will be 297.2m long and 46.4m wide, which is to be delivered by 2018.

Depending on E.ON's trade volume, MOL will exercise an option for an additional vessel.

The shipbuilding contract marks E.ON's maiden deal with DSME and MOL.

The vessel price was not disclosed, but judging from recent orders, it is about US$200m.

The ship ordered will be built with DSME's partial re-liquefaction system, which was developed to prevent the loss of LNG cargoes through vaporisation. The system re-liquefies the vaporised gas and sends it back to the containment system.

The contract also marks the sixth LNG carrier DSME has clinched year to date, cementing its position as a major builder of such ships.

DSME said that together with two VLCCs it also clinched this year, it has won about US$1.4bn worth of orders year to date.