South Korean shipbuilders suffer loss

South Korea’s major shipyards have reported weaker than expected earnings for the third quarter of the year, due to rising costs and the construction of low-priced ships amid reduced new orders, according to Yonhap news. 

Namely, during the July-September period, the country’s largest shipbuilder, Hyundai Heavy Industries, expects an operating income of 106 billion won (USD 93.6 million), compared with last year’s earnings of 322 billion won.

Similarly, Samsung Heavy Industries Co., another big shipbuilder here, expects an operating income of 39 billion won for the third quarter, compared with 84 billion won last year.

The South Korean shipbuilding has been suffering a financial pressure since the 2008 global economic crisis, which minimized new orders and stressed the competition from Chinese shipbuilding market. The country’s top three shipyards suffered a combined operating loss of 8.5 trillion won in 2015, yonhap reports.