Koreans bag over $5bn orders at Posidonia

Korean shipbuilders have confirmed at Posidonia they have hauled in orders worth more than $5bn.

News of the business added a further buzz to the exhibition. The world’s three largest yards all snared deals with 34 ships with STX snagging two too. Even for the record-breaking Greek event cementing deals on this scale is unusual. But as one Athens-based analyst said: “While the deals have been on the table for sometime, Posidonia offered the perfect place to bring the parties together to put pen to paper. ”Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s largest shipbuilder, confirmed deals worth $2.4bn to build 22 tankers including nine 158,000dwt suezmaxes with Alba Maritime worth $837m. Other ships booked include six VLCCs, a further five suezmaxes and two aframaxes. Meanwhile, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering has inked deals for $2.5bn. Though no names were revealed the bulk of the business is known to have come from Greeks who already have a staggering 1,050-plus ships on orders, many of them in South Korea. Samsung Heavy Industries signed a contract for a pair of aframaxes at the show, with two more still under negotiation. STX Shipbuilding has landed contracts to build two VLCCs, to be delivered to European owners by 2010-11. Finally, while Hanjin Heavy Industries has not garnered any contracts from the show as yet, it appreciates the important of this market and will set up a Greek office later this year.

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