Recent Steel Price Reductions News

Korean shipbuilders are enjoying high financial times, powered by historically high ship prices and recent steel price reductions. Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., the world's largest shipbuilder, posted its fourth-consecutive quarterly profit on increased orders for more expensive ships. Net income totaled 22.9 billion won, or $24.4 million, in the three months ending March 31, compared with a loss of 88.95 billion won in the same period a year earlier, Hyundai Heavy said in a regulatory filing to the nation's financial watchdog, according to a report in the Korea Herald. Global ship prices for very large crude oil carriers rose 39 percent to $110 million per vessel at the end of 2004 from $79 million at the beginning of 2004, Hyundai Heavy said in a statement.