Individual Combat
Major Korean shipbuilders have come up with different strategies for the survival of their offshore plant business, with international oil prices continuing to plummet.
Specifically, Hyundai Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering are planning to cut back, whereas Samsung Heavy Industries is trying to cope with the situation by means of aggressive expansion.
Samsung Heavy Industries is planning to win back the first place in the industry this year. It is aiming to win orders worth at least US$15 billion this year and attain at least US$7 billion of it in the offshore plant sector.
Meanwhile, Hyundai Heavy Industries, which is the global number one now, recently decided to let1,500 office workers go and combined the plant business unit with the ocean business unit. Hyundai Heavy Industries president Kwon Oh-kap mentioned a business goal of US$23 billion earlier this year, which is 22 percent less than the previous year’s goal. It is said that most of the decrement will pertain to its offshore plant business.
Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, which was the only one of the big three that succeeded in meeting the annual business target for last year, had to see its performance in the offshore plant sector limited to just 18 percent, or US$2.7 billion, of the total orders obtained. Also, its business strategies for this year revolve around LNG carriers, meaning a performance improvement in the sector will be less likely. Still, the company is going to accelerate technological development in this field by means of partnerships with foreign offshore plant design firms.