South Korea’s DSME to slash thousands of jobs

South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) has reportedly announced that thousands of jobs will be cut by 2019. 

According to the Korea Herald, the daily newspaper with news from South Korea, DSME will cut 12,000 jobs, leaving the company with 30,000 employees by 2019 as part of efforts to revive its struggling core business.

The newspaper quoted DSME CEO, Jung Sung-Leep, as saying: “We are planning to reduce the number of employees to a similar level to 2009 and 2010 when management efficiency was the highest.”

According to Bloomberg, the shipbuilder said the worst was over and that the company expected a profit this year.

“The worst appears to be over,” Bloomberg quoted Jung as saying.

Jung added: “We now have better control of our offshore business and are confident we will be able to deliver orders as planned with no further losses.”

Oil price plunge prompted DSME’s clients to cancel or delay deliveries of their offshore rigs. Offshore drilling contractor, Vantage Drilling, cancelled a drillship order in August 2015. Another drilling contractor, Transocean, delayed two drillships from DSME, and Atwood Oceanics also delayed its deliveries.

Offshore Energy Today Staff