Empty Shipyard: "Hyundai Town" Grapples with Uncertain Future
Hyundai has outsized influence over town's economy, population; Ulsan could be South Korea's Rust Belt in the making.When Lee Dong-hee came to Ulsan to work for Hyundai Heavy Industries five years ago, shipyards in the city known as Hyundai Town operated day and night and workers could make triple South Korea's annual average salary.But the 52-year-old was laid off in January, joining some 27,000 workers and subcontractors who lost their jobs at Hyundai Heavy between 2015 and 2017 as ship orders plunged.To support their family, Lee's wife took a minimum wage job at a Hyundai Motor supplier.
'Hyundai Town' Grapples with Slowed Shipyard and Grim Future
When Lee Dong-hee came to Ulsan to work for Hyundai Heavy Industries five years ago, shipyards in the city known as Hyundai Town operated day and night and workers could make triple South Korea's annual average salary.But the 52-year-old was laid off in January, joining some 27,000 workers and subcontractors who lost their jobs at Hyundai Heavy between 2015 and 2017 as ship orders plunged.To support their family, Lee's wife took a minimum wage job at a Hyundai Motor supplier.
HHI: To Infinity & Beyond
Thirty years ago when Greek shipowner George Livanos met with Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) founder Chung Ju Yung met on a sandy beach on the tip of the Korean peninsula where the new HHI shipyard would stand, little did they know that 30 years later, HHI would have delivered 1,000 ships of 75 mdwt to 188 shipowners in 42 countries. HHI is celebrating its 30th anniversary in a manner most any other commercial shipbuilder would enjoy, with the delivery of its 1,000th vessel, or the equivalent of 77.5 million dwt. Rival shipyards and political organizations in Europe, the U.S. and Japan often question the manner in which HHI and its shipbuilding colleagues in South Korea garner such large market share, with the dreaded word “subsidies” used with great earnest.
Hyundai Founder Dies
Chung Ju-yung, the rags-to-riches founder of South Korea's mighty Hyundai industrial empire, died on Wednesday aged 85. Born into a poverty-stricken farming family in 1915 in what is now North Korea, Chung helped propel South Korea from the ashes of civil war into an industrial powerhouse. Chung died in hospital from complications from pneumonia, hospital officials said. Chung left home at 18 to seek his fortune against the will of his father who wanted his first son to feed his family. He earned his first wage as a rice delivery boy. His first step on the road to riches came with his first ventures, a lorry firm and car repair company in the waning days of Japan's 1910-45 occupation of Korea.
