The Joongang Ilbo News

According to reports, Qatar is expected to hire three South Korean shipbuilders to build 44 liquefied natural gas carriers for a total of $10 billion. The joint project between U.S. energy giant Exxon Mobil Corp. and state-run Qatar Petroleum Co. calls for transferring 15.6 million tons of LNG from Qatar to Exxon Mobil`s terminal in the United States. Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Samsung Heavy Industries Co. and Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. won orders for a combined 34 LNG carriers between June 2004 and last month and are expected to win orders for 10 more vessels by the end of April, JoongAng Ilbo reported Wednesday. Source: UPI

Hyundai Merchant Marine, South Korea's largest shipping firm, denied on Thursday a local report it had begun a debt-rescheduling program led by creditor banks. "It is not true that the company began a debt-rescheduling program led by creditors and the government formed a debt team due to rising debts," the company said in a statement. The JoongAng Ilbo newspaper quoted an official at the FSS as saying that the new debt-rescheduling team was formed as some financial institutions were inclined to collect debts from the company after it revealed an increased debt-to-equity ratio in its March audit report. Hyundai Merchant said it was a profitable company with a profitable future.