Page 113: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 1998)

Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) appears to have been the most successful South

Korean yard in the new- building market during the first quarter of 1998. The company booked orders for 12 vessels with a value of $500 million in the period. tanker, both for early 2000 deliv- ery. Norway's Wilhelmsen Lines has chosen DHI for its much her- alded series of three new genera- tion RoRo vessels, capable of com- bining large volumes of RoRo and car cargoes. The letter of intent was for a reported $240 million for consecutive deliveries in the first three-quarters of 2000, and includ- ed an option for three additional ships. South Korea's bankrupt

Halla Group will be restructured around three core subsidiaries spe- cializing in car part manufactur- ing, cement and construction, according to chairman Chung

Mong-won. Halla's shipbuilding subsidiary was not referred to in the context of a core operation because it is in court receiver ship.

Mr. Chung said: "We will complete the merger and sell off of non- essential subsidiaries to be reborn around Mando Machinery, Halla

Cement and Halla Engineering &

Construction within a year."

Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) plans to open new offices in

Europe and South America to help attract orders for its huge ship- building operations. New offices in

Germany and Venezuela will sup- plement HHI's existing eight over- seas offices which are dedicated to supporting the world's largest shipbuilding group. The Caracas office will be the company's first in

South America.

Japan likely to be disposed of within the next 20 to 30 years, they believe demand will increase. The three,

Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy

Industries (IHI), Hitachi Zosen and Mitsui Engineering &

Shipbuilding (MES), expect annual demand to reach 15-20 rigs with orders totaling at least 50 in the next five to six years.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) will stop consigning produc- tion of ship blocks to Chinese sub- contractors that fail to meet quali- ty standards and delivery require- ments. The company will instead boost in-house production of ship blocks, the large-scale components of a vessel, as well as increase out- sourcing to Japanese subcontrac- tors. Japan's Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) has ordered three double- hull 260,000 dwt VLCCs from

MES' Chiba Shipyard. The first of the vessels will be delivered in

December next year, with the sec- ond and third due in September and December 2000. has won a contract worth more than $100 million to build a semi- submersible drilling tender for

Smedvig Asia, one of the largest offshore drilling contractors in the region. The order comes as a sur- prise as the shipyard's sister facili- ty, Keppel Fels, which is in arbitra- tion with Smedvig over alleged deficiencies found in the Balder

FPSO. When completed in April, 1999, the self-erecting drilling ten- der ship will be named West

Menang and will be working long- term for Brunei Shell Petroleum.

AP Moller has ordered an addition- al pair of 18,600-bhp anchor han- dling tug/supply (AHTS) vessels from Keppel Singmarine, in a con- tract estimated to be worth $12.9 million. The two ships will be sim- ilar to four AHTS vessels already under construction for the Danish shipowner at Keppel Singmarine, which is part of Keppel Marine

Industries.

Singapore

Philippines

Singapore's Keppel Shipyard

Philippines' Kepphil Shipyard

Inc. is to be renamed Keppel

Philippines Marine Inc. and its sis- ter company Cebu Shipyard and

Engineering Works is to become

Keppel Philippines Properties Inc. "Streamlining our operations will enable us to focus and grow our core business here," said

Keppel Philippines Holdings chair- man and Singapore-based Keppel

Corp Ltd. managing director Loh

Wing Siew. The major restructur- ing exercise is intended by Keppel to maximize the shareholder value of its three listed companies:

Keppel Holdings; Kepphil

Shipyard; and Cebu Shipyard. "We want to give investors here a wide choice of investment portfolio under the Keppel flag," Mr. Loh said.

Cebu's largest shipbuilder,

Tsuneishi Shipbuilding (Cebu)

Philippines, is planning to build an additional slipway in 1999. The slipway will have a capacity of 70,000 dwt, making it the first shipyard in the country capable of building Panamax-sized bulk car- riers, the Aboitiz Group reported.

Tsuneishi Shipbuilding is a joint venture between Hiroshima-based builder Tsuneishi Heavy

Industries and local transportation conglomerate Aboitiz Group.

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