Daewoo Shipbuilding wins this year's first shipbuilding order

SEOUL, June 4 (Yonhap) -- Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., the
world's third-largest shipbuilder, said Thursday that it has won a US$45 million
order to build a small-sized barge ship, its first shipbuilding order of the
year.

The deal with a Dutch company calls on Daewoo Shipbuilding to deliver the vessel
by the end of 2010, the company said in a statement. Daewoo Shipbuilding did not
identify the buyer's name.
Shares of Daewoo Shipbuilding were trading at 21,650 won (US$17.40) as of 9:45
a.m., up 2.13 percent.
A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of
heavy goods.
The order came at a time when Daewoo Shipbuilding and other South Korean
shipyards have suffered a plunge in new orders.
Shipyards in South Korea, the world's largest shipbuilding nation, received
record orders in recent years on rising shipbuilding demand.
But those orders have all but vanished since September as declining global trade
slashed cargo rates and demand for new vessels.
Only Samsung Heavy Industries Co., the world's second-largest shipbuilder,
managed to win a shipbuilding order, valued at $680 million, in the first three
months of the year.
Compound their woes, shipping lines worldwide are reportedly demanding that
orders be canceled and delivery of new ships be delayed.
sam@yna.co.kr
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