SHI’s Profit Soars in Q1

South Korean shipbuilding major Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) has joined the recovery drive of its two compatriots, DSME and Hyundai Heavy Industries, having posted a 350.8 percent jump in its operating profit for the first three months of 2017 year-on-year.

Specifically, SHI’s operating profit for the quarter reached KRW 27.5 billion (USD 24.20 million) a considerable increase from KRW 6.1 billion in the corresponding period in 2016, the shipbuilder revealed in a stock exchange filing.

The company’s net profit achieved 269 percent increase, reaching KRW 58,700 billion (USD 51.6 million) against KRW 15.9 billion a year earlier.

However, SHI’s revenue suffered 3.7 percent dip and came at KRW 2.44 trillion.

The increase in profit has been driven by a favorable order intake that kicked off the year amid stabilization in the shipbuilding industry resulting in a total of USD 1.5 billion worth of new orders. SHI’s order backlogs as of March 31, 2017 on delivery basis totals in USD 26.5 billion, the company’s data show. These are dominated by tankers, 34 of them, followed by 15 LNG carriers and 10 drilling rigs, among other units.

Due to forecasts that the shipbuilding industry could slightly improve during 2017, the shipbuilder decided to raise its orderbook goal to USD 6 billion, from last year’s USD 5.3 billion target, after winning a major order to build a large offshore platform at the beginning of the year worth USD 1.3 billion.

The turnaround is in particular expected in the LNG carrier sector and FSRUs, according to SHI, with up to 30 LNGC orders forecast to be placed on annual basis from 2017.

World Maritime News Staff