Korean shipbuilders are enjoying high financial times, powered by historically high ship prices and recent steel price reductions. Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., the world's largest shipbuilder, posted its fourth-consecutive quarterly profit on increased orders for more expensive ships. Net income totaled 22.9 billion won, or $24.4 million, in the three months ending March 31, compared with a loss of 88.95 billion won in the same period a year earlier, Hyundai Heavy said in a regulatory filing to the nation's financial watchdog, according to a report in the Korea Herald. Global ship prices for very large crude oil carriers rose 39 percent to $110 million per vessel at the end of 2004 from $79 million at the beginning of 2004, Hyundai Heavy said in a statement.