The Korea Economic Daily News

South Korean shipper Hyundai Merchant Marine Co Ltd (HMM) is in talks with BlackRock Inc about a potential investment but details have yet to be discussed, a HMM spokesman said on Monday.   BlackRock is in talks with HMM to invest up to 1 trillion won ($880 million) in the nation's largest shipper, the Korea Economic Daily reported on Monday, citing unidentified investment banking and shipping industry sources.   A BlackRock spokeswoman could not be immediately reached for comment.   HMM shares were up 1.2 percent in morning trade, compared to a 0.2 percent fall for the wider market.   Reporting by Joyce Lee

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) will sell the subsidiary of Mangalia Shipyard Romania to a Dutch builder Damen Shipyard Group, reported local media. Damen already owns in Romania a shipyard in Galati. Korea Economic Daily also said that Damen is in talks to purchase the local shipyard from South Korean group DSME. Quoting unnamed sources, the reports say that on June 20, DSME completed its final talk with the largest shipbuilder of the Netherlands, on the sale of Mangalia Shipyards. Established in 1997 with the Romanian government, the shipyard in Mangalia is owned as a 51:49  joint venture by Daewoo and the government. Daewoo has a 51% stake in it, and the Romanian state owns the remaining 49%.

South Korea’s shipbuilders are expected to recover this year after suffering from a global industrywide slump, reported The Korea Economic Daily. The report said that Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) have already achieved more than a half of their annual targets. SHI clinched deals worth US$4.8 billion coming into this year, which accounts for 74 percent of its annual target of $6.5 billion. It won orders for 13 ships worth US$4.8 billion so far this year, including eight tankers, two LNG carriers, one LNG-FSRU, one FLNG, and one FPU. Hyundai Heavy Industries Group also successfully posted deals worth $3.8 billion in the first five months of this year, which is already 50 percent above its annual target of $7.5 billion.

South Korea's Sungdong Shipbuilding  won an order for seven mid-sized tankers, including two as an option, from a Greek shipowner, reported Korea Economic Daily. It has been more than one year that the Korean mid-sized shipyard to receive a newbuilding contract. Sungdong Shipbuilding signed a deal with Greece’s Kyklades Maritime to build five 115,000-ton tankers in firm order and two more in option. The per-ship newbuilding price is estimated at US$44 million. The report said that Sungdong Shipbuilding is also likely to clinch orders for two tankers and two shuttle tankers within the first half of this year. These orders would bring Sungdong’s order receipt volume up to $500-$600 million, brightening the prospect that it could achieve its annual order receipt target set at $1 billion.

The Seoul Central District Court  has approved a divestment of Hanjin Shipping's Asia-US network and the bankrupt carrier has encouraged Maersk Line to bid on the assets, according to The Korea Economic Daily. It was reported that the ailing Korean shipping company recently contacted Maersk Line, the world's largest container shipping company, to take part in the bidding for the deal. According to the Court on October 13, Hanjin Shipping is set to undertake a main bidding on November 7 after making a business transfer notification on October 14 and taking letters of intent by the 28th. "The value of Hanjin Shipping falling rapidly in continuation of the ongoing logistical crisis, we will try to sell the assets as quickly as possible," said a spokesman from the court according to the media.

According to a report by Korea Economic Daily the number of workers who left Korea's top-three shipbuilding companies - Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries, and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering - in the first half of this year is estimated at around 5,000. As the shipbuilding industry was hit by global oversupply and lack of demand the country’s shipyards were forced to decrease their workforce as they launched drastic restructuring measures in an effort to return to liquidity. As a result of the shipyards' top-to-bottom restructuring, caused by the slump of the global shipbuilding market, as many as 3,000 employees resigned during the January-June period of this year, with about 2,000 employees who applied for voluntary retirement programs being laid off on July 1.

South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co Ltd (DSME) is in talks with a unit of A.P. Moller-Maersk for a potential order to build ultra-large container ships, a DSME spokesman said on Monday. DSME is close to winning an order for some 11 container ships of 20,000 TEU (20-foot equivalent units) from Maersk for about $151 million per vessel or more, South Korean newspaper Korea Economic Daily reported last week, citing unnamed shipbuilding industry sources and foreign media. British shipbroking house Clarkson also confirmed the deal, which is worth $1.66 billion in total. The ships would be delivered in 2017, Clarkson said in a shipping industry report on Friday. The spokesman for DSME declined to confirm or deny other details, adding that nothing has been decided.

AP Moller-Maersk has returned to South Korean shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering for its latest series of ultra-large container ships (ULCS), reports The Korea Economic Daily. The total contract to build 11 ultra-large containerships is worth US$1.7 billion. The newspaper quoted shipping sources saying that the Danish conglomerate decided to have DSME build eleven 20,000-TEU container carriers and is currently negotiating final details. In the bidding, Hyundai Heavy Industries was also a contender. Although the details of the deal have not been revealed, Daewoo will likely build four ships first, with the remaining seven ships as options. According to an industry official, the per-vessel price is about $151 million.

Creditors of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co Ltd are formally seeking bidders for a 50.4 percent stake by next Wednesday, Reuters said. Korea Development Bank (KDB) and state-run Korea Asset Management Corp are the offering 96.4 million shares they hold in Daewoo Shipbuilding, according to an invitation notice carried in early Friday edition of the Korea Economic Daily. As expected, the notice specified that a bidder must meet the legal requirements to invest in the defence industry, a condition that effectively rules out foreign contenders. The deal is expected to fetch up to $8 billion, more than double its current market valuation, due to competition from local conglomerates seeking a new growth engine and strong earnings prospects for Daewoo.   Source:  Reuters

Technical specialists with NAVSEA's Naval Underwater Warfare Division, Keyport recently helped the U.S. Coast Guard to locate the sunken fishing vessel Arctic Rose that disappeared in the Bering Sea on April 2, with all 15 crew members aboard. Three Keyport personnel recently returned after completing a project supporting the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS). The technicians returned from 42 days in the Bering Sea and Bristol Bay, Alaska where they conducted a Side Scan Sonar survey to examine the effects of commercial trawling equipment on the sea floor for the NMFS. The survey work was conducted aboard the fishing vessel Ocean Explorer. At the request of the U.S Coast Guard, the trip was extended their trip to support efforts to locate the Arctic Rose.