Shipbuilders likely to miss annual order targets

Korean shipbuilders are anticipated to miss their annual order targets in 2019 amid the drawn-out U.S.-China trade dispute and the global economic slowdown, industry watchers said Sunday.

The country’s top three shipyards - Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, Samsung Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering - bagged a combined $12.1 billion worth of orders in the first eight months of the year.

These numbers are down 21.3 percent from a year earlier, industry data showed.

Top player Hyundai Heavy, including its affiliates Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries and Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, won orders worth $4.9 billion over the cited period, plunging 40.5 percent on-year. The amount falls far behind the annual target of $15.9 billion.

Daewoo Shipbuilding clinched $3 billion worth of orders over the cited period, which accounts for only 36 percent of its annual target of $8.3 billion, according to the data.

Samsung Heavy Industries was the only player that managed to win more orders compared with a year earlier at $4.2 billion.

However, the amount still accounts for around half of its annual target.

Business conditions seem not to be good for now, given the global economic slowdown and the lack of growth momentum, industry observers said.

Global ship orders totaled 11.8 million compensated gross tons (CGTs) in the January-July period, down 43 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by London-based Clarkson Research Services Ltd.

Yonhap