Korea Herald reported that future prospects for Korean shipbuilders are cloudy as demand for new ships remains weak amid economic uncertainties.

According to the survey of key 18 sectors conducted by the Federation of Korean Industries, the local shipbuilding industry is the only segment that still faces a downturn.

Mr Hong Sung il, an official at the FKI, said that "The fourth quarter business performance of the local shipbuilding sector is viewed as good due to their massive order backlogs, but their business outlook is still murky due to falling new orders."

According to market researcher Clarkson Plc, the global economic recession caused shipbuilding orders worldwide to slump more than 90% in the first 7 months of 2009. Hyundai Heavy Industries Co won USD 492 million of new orders in the first 7 months of 2009 as compared with USD 14.7 billion a year earlier. Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co received USD 300 million in the first 8 months of 2009, slumping from USD 11.5 billion a year earlier.

(Sourced from Korea Herald)