South Korean Shipbuilders Profit from Mideast Orders

South Korean shipbuilders and construction companies are enjoying benefits from profitable orders from overseas, particularly Mideast countries that have huge currency reserves thanks to strong crude oil prices. The country’s three main shipbuilders have clinched contracts worth $18b in the first quarter, up more than 400 percent from a year earlier. They have already attained over 40 percent of their yearly targets. Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., the world’s largest shipbuilder, and its two affiliates won orders worth $5.1b in the January-March period, compared with their full-year target of $12.5b. Hyundai Heavy alone received $2.3b worth of orders in the first quarter, approaching its yearly target of $7.4b. In March, the shipbuilder won orders for 24 vessels worth $2.6b, a record sale on a monthly basis. Its shipbuilding and repair arm, Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co. garnered contracts worth $1.6b in the period. An affiliate, Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co., won $1.2b worth of orders in the first quarter. The world’s second largest shipbuilder, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering secured orders worth $4.5b in the first three months, or 45 percent of its yearly target of $10b. Its quarterly performance was more than the full-year sale of $3.9b in 2003. It received $6.8b worth of orders last year, up from $6.6b worth of orders in 2004. Samsung Heavy Industries Co., the third-largest shipbuilder in the world, won $3.4b worth of orders in the three-month period, or 44 percent of its full-year goal of $7.7b. The company was recently commissioned to build three LNG vessels with a capacity of 266,000 cubic meters each, the biggest order for LNG carriers ever placed. Last month, it also won a $550m deal to build an oil-drilling ship. (Source: Monsters and Critics.com)