S. Korea's Shipbuilders Continue Winning Projects Overseas

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME), the world's second-largest shipbuilder, and Sungdong Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (SSME) have taken up over 50 percent of orders of the market since November 2009. Domestic ship builders are busy winning orders internationally amid sluggishness in shipbuilding. Daewoo awarded a contract to build five crude oil carriers in Angola, Southwestern Africa and Sungdong won orders to build four bulk carriers from Japan, according to sources from the industry.
Daewoo said on Saturday that it inked a contract over building five 160,000-ton crude oil carriers for Sonangol, Angola’s state- run oil company, in Lisbon Portugal. The total contract is worth 400 billion won ($ 348 million).
Upon this contract, Daewoo is to set records of building nine carriers worth $1.1 billion in 2010. Daewoo, which became the number one shipbuilder globally with its recent orders reaching $4 billion in 2009, is accelerating its pace in winning orders this year as well by building offshore plants and wind farm support vessels in Sakhalin, Russia.
Sungdong shipbuilding and marine engineering won orders of four carriers worth 230 billion won, two Capesize bulk carriers and two Kamsarmax bulk carriers from Japan on Sunday.
Domestic shipbuilders are taking most of the world’s ship building orders through its unique sales strategy amid the troubled shipbuilding industry.
South Korea’s STX and Hanjin Heavy Industries also are snatching up more ship building orders compared to the previous year. Clarkson Research Services Ltd., a leading search firm in the shipbuilding and marine engineering industry, said South Korea’s shipbuilders took up 56.7 percent of the worlds’ ship orders of 353,986 CGT (compensated gross tonnage) in January alone, whereas China clinched orders of building only six carriers of 82,707CGT.