Major shipyards forecast to have returned to black in Q1

Published : Apr 17, 2017 - 09:33 Updated : Apr 17, 2017 - 09:33

South Korea's major shipyards such as Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. are widely expected to have swung back into the black in the first quarter of the year from a year earlier, largely thanks to cost-cutting measures, industry sources said Monday.

According to the sources, Samsung Heavy Industries Co., a major shipyard here, is expected to have racked up an operating income of 38 billion won ($3.3 million) in the first quarter on sales of 2.1 trillion won. Last year, Samsung Heavy suffered a loss of 139 billion won.

(Yonhap)

Its estimated sales in the first quarter also compare with 2.39 trillion won the previous quarter.

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co, the most troubled major shipyard here, is also expected to have achieved positive operating income due to its massive cost-cutting measures.

Hit by a fall in new orders and a delay in the construction of offshore facilities, Daewoo Shipbuilding has been in the red since 2013.

Daewoo Shipbuilding suffered a net loss of 2.79 trillion won last year and an operating loss of 1.53 trillion won.

Earlier, Jung Sung-leep, president of Daewoo Shipbuilding, said he was confident of a turnaround in the first quarter.

Hyundai Heavy is predicted to have logged an operating income of 352 billion won in the January-March period, sharply lower than an operating income of 438 billion won for the previous quarter and 325 billion won a year earlier.

The shipyard has been in the black since the first quarter of 2016. Last year, Hyundai Heavy logged an operating income of over 1 trillion won.

But its sales are estimated to have dropped to below 10 trillion won in the first quarter from 10.35 trillion won three months earlier and 10.27 trillion won a year earlier, the sources said. (Yonhap)