Daewoo Motor News

Daewoo Heavy Industries Co. (DHI)announced a loss in the first- half of this year of 337.7 billion won ($302.9 million), compared with net income of 53.2 billion won in the same period last year. DHI is undergoing a reorganization to divulge itself of money-losing operations, as are many of the large Korean industrial conglomerates. Current plans plans call for a split in the shipbuilding and construction equipment businesses into separate units, leaving the remaining company with nonoperating assets, including stakes in Daewoo Motor Co. The division is set for Sept. 1 after several delays. Sales totaled 2.08 trillion won, down from 3.11 trillion won in the same period in 1999, in part because a stronger won meant dollar-denominated ship sales converted into fewer won in the accounts.

The shipbuilding unit of South Korea's troubled Daewoo Group expects a net profit and more profitable orders in 2001 as it charts a new, independent course. Daewoo Shipbuilding & Engineering Co, split off from troubled Daewoo Heavy Industries last October, said it aimed for net profit of $156.7 million this year, buoyed by strong global orders. "It looks certain that Daewoo Shipbuilding has a great business year ahead of it," said Song Sang-hoon, analyst at Dongwon Economic Research Institute. It also plans to repay 200 billion won of debt this year to free itself from a debt restructuring program undertaken by its creditors in 1999, Daewoo officials said. "Our losses in the past stemmed from problems of other Daewoo affiliates," shipyard spokesman Kim Do-kyun said.

Han Jong-chan assembles the massive blocks used to build ships at one of South Korea's huge and successful shipbuilding yards and has never been happier. Han has worked Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering's famed shipyard on remote Koje island here for 18 of his 38 years, recently on night shifts as hefty orders force workers to man giant cranes and welding shops around the clock. Despite a troubled past, a looming dispute with the European Union over subsidies and growing competition from China, the future is looking rosy -- particularly with Korean yards eyeing the potentially lucrative market for cruise ships. The port of Okpo is synonymous with the Daewoo Group and the efforts of its now disgraced founder…

While many of troubled Daewoo Group’s top executives have been ousted by South Korean creditors who rescued the troubled Daewoo Group from collapse last July, it appears that the head of the shipbuilding division will stay. Creditors voted to retain Daewoo Heavy Industries President Shin Young-kyun as president of its shipbuilding division and picked Yang Jae-shin, president of Daewoo Motor's Poland subsidiary, to lead Daewoo Heavy's machinery division.