South Gyeongsang Province News

South Korean shipyard Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) revealed that it has clinched a KRW 400bn (USD358 million) deal to build two LNG carriers.According to a press release from the Korean shipbuilder, the contract, with an unnamed Asian shipper, calls for Samsung Heavy to deliver the vessels by the end of 2021. The deal also includes an option for four additional orders that could be made next year, it said."SHI's new order total for 2018 now stands at 44 vessels and 5.4 billion USD. which include 13 LNG carriers, 13 Containerships, 15 tankers, and 3 special purpose ships," said the release.According to Yonhap, the shipbuilder aims to secure $8.2 billion worth of deals for the year.Pulse News reported that under the latest contract…

The world`s first icebreaking liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier was named Christophe de Margerie in St. Petersburg, Russia. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, South Korea’s Ambassador to Russia Park Dae-bong and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME) CEO Jung Sung-leep attended the naming ceremony for the country’s new carrier. The ship will be deployed for Russia’s national Far East resource development in the Yamal Peninsula, in the western part of Siberia. The icebreaking LNG carrier, 299 meters long and 50 meters wide, can carry 173,600 cubic meters of LNG. The icebreaking Arc-7 ice class carrier, capable of sailing through 2.1-meter-thick ice, is made of special steel plate, three times thicker than typical plates.

South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) has won a $100 million order to build two liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers for Korea Line, reports Yohnap. Korea Gas Corp. (KOGAS) has chartered Korea Line to transport LNG from Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province (mainland) to Jeju Island for 20 years. Under the deal with Korea Line, SHI will build the ships by December 2019, the company said. One of the two vessels would have LNG bunkering capability. The ships, which can carry up to 7,500 cubic meters of LNG each, will be deployed to transport LNG between local ports, it added. The shipyard would be building expertise in the home-grown containment system, small-scale LNG carriers and LNG bunkering vessels through the order, it said.

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME) has bagged a combined 700 billion won (US$590 million) in potential orders from Maran Tankers Management, a unit of Angelicoussis Shipping Group, reported Yonhap. Under the agreement with the Greece's largest shipper the troubled South Korean shipbuilder will provide a liquefied natural gas-floating storage and regasification (LNG-FSRU) ship. The contract also includes an option to build two more LNG tankers if Angelicoussis Shipping Group satisfies with the first deal to build the LNG-FSRU. The LNG-FSRU is expected to be built at the Okpo Shipyard in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province, and the scheduled delivery will take place by early 2020.

Another massive reduction in the Korean shipbuilding workforce may come as most shipyards are still struggling with falling orders and mounting losses, reports Yonhap quoting industry sources. Hyundai Heavy Industries plans for large layoffs amid a prolonged recession in the global shipbuilding sector and the government’s move to restructure the ailing industry. Over the past few weeks, the troubled world’s No. 1 shipbuilder is rumored to be planning an additional cut of 3,000 employees -- most likely from its production line -- in the form of voluntary retirement programs. The firm already cut around 60 executives in April and around 1,500 office workers last year.

North Korea recently conducted a third test of a new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) that is part of Pyongyang’s expanding nuclear arsenal, according to US defense officials cited by the Washington Free Beacon. The test took place on April 22 from an underwater test platform near the coastal city of Sinpo in the southeast of the country, and tested what the US is calling a KN-11 missile. The test appears to have been successful, and is the third KN-11 test showing the high-priority of the nuclear missile program for North Korea. Previous tests in January and last October were from a sea-based platform not underwater and a land-based platform.

The Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines will invest up to 50 billion yen ($412 million) to build two liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers, reports Nikkei. Construction of the ships will be contracted to South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME), with completion slated for the second half of 2018. DSME said it will complete the next-generation, environmentally friendly LNG carrier at its shipyard in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province, by 2018. Each vessel will have a tank capacity of around 180,000 cu. meters and be able to transport around 1 million tons of LNG annually. To ease the burden of investment, Mitsui will form a 50-50 joint venture with trading house Itochu that will own the vessels.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) signs an agreement allowing STX Construction (Dalian) to produce & market marine deck cranes. Through licensing to this company member of the STX group, which has shipyards in Korea, China and Europe, MHI aims to accelerate global market penetration of its technology-based marine deck cranes. The deck cranes to be licensed are two models, currently on the market, having a 30-ton hoisting capacity and a working radius of up to 26 and 28 meters, respectively.

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering has begun constructing the world's largest container vessel after receiving the order from Denmark's AP Moller-Maersk, the shipbuilder has announced. When completed, the 18,000 TEU container ship will measure 400 m in length and 59 m in width, with a deck wide enough to accommodate four football fields. It is the first of 20 container ships DSME is building for the Danish company based on orders from February last year. The shipbuilder said it plans to hand it over in the second half of 2013. Denmark's Crown Prince Frederik and his wife Mary, who are in Korea visiting the 2012 Yeosu Expo that opened on Saturday, attended a ceremony marking the start of the vessel's construction on the same day at DSME's Okpo shipyard in South Gyeongsang Province.