’07 foreign plant orders estimated at $30 billion

Korean companies are expected to clinch $30 billion in orders to build plants overseas in 2007 thanks to demand for power, desalination and petrochemical plants, government and corporate sources said yesterday.
In the first quarter this year, overseas plant orders totaled $10.8 billion, up 65 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy and the Korea Plant Industries Association said. In 2006, local companies won a record $25.4 billion in overseas plant orders.
“Local companies won 5.4 billion won worth of orders from countries like the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Saudi Arabia, while demand from India, Thailand and Norway has risen,” said Cha Dong-hyun, head of the ministry's export-import division.
He said high oil prices, in particular, are causing some countries to reinvest in vital infrastructure and causing major energy developers to place orders for specialized equipment to develop energy resources.
The association said Korean companies are doing well in such areas as expensive oil and gas drill ships that cost $500-700 million each.
If worldwide demand for energy continues to rise and the global economy expands, demand for industrial plant exports will benefit Korean manufacturers, it said.