South Korean Shipyards: Silver Lining for the Biggies
Though South Korea’s big three shipbuilders -Hyundai Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, and Samsung Heavy Industries - showing signs of fiscal recovery this year, orders at midsized shipbuilding companies remain sparse.
Korea Herald reported citing Korea Export-Import Bank of Korea that the order receipts of medium-sized shipyards in Korea were estimated to be around $110 million in the first quarter.
Despite an improvement compared to last year’s first quarter, when there was not a single order, ship orders for the countries eight mid-sized shipbuilders are insufficient compared to the top three.
Korea’s big three received a total of 36 vessel orders worth $3.48 billion so far this year.
Meanwhile, companies and related firms in the shipbuilding sector has reduced their workforce by 14.8 percent, or 8,607 workers in the previous year, Yonhap News reported on citing data from Chaebul.com, one of South Korea’s industry tracker.