Dole

South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Mipo Dockyard has announced that it has secured a US$165m contract to build three container ships for Dole Food Company, the Global Post reports.

A spokesperson for Hyundai Mipo stated that these ships will each be 190m in length and 30.4m in width, with the capacity to carry 770 40ft (12.192m) equivalent container boxes.

Hyundai Mipo is set to commence delivering the reefer container carriers from November 2015.

This latest deal comes as part of a highly lucrative year for the company, which has thus far for 2013 been awarded contracts to build 55 ships, worth US$2.5bn. This amounts to 79 per cent of its annual order target of $3.2bn, which it looks set to more than achieve.

The contract with Dole Food is particularly prestigious given the company’s status as a global leading fruit and vegetable producer.

Hyundai Mipo is a unit of the South Korea's leading shipbuilder, Hyundai Heavy Industries.