Tag: DSME

Worker unions at South Korean shipbuilding giant Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. staged a partial strike on Thursday to protest against the merger with the compatriot major Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co Ltd (DSME).

As the Korea Times reports, Hyundai Heavy Industries is facing protests from Ulsan City over its goal to establish the headquarters of Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, the newly merged company of Hyundai Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME), in Seoul.

As Samsung Heavy Industries reported on Monday, April 22, it signed a contract with an Asian shipping company, for the construction of a storage and offloading unit that will cost 1.1 trillion won, under the term that the client's move is supported by the partner and the government.

In a message to all employees, the new chief of South Korean shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME), said Monday that the company needs to secure more orders by gaining price competitiveness.

Finnish technology provider Valmet said it will supply scrubbers for seven new building container vessels, to be built by DSME for South Korean shipping company Hyundai Merchant Marine. The container ships will be the largest in the world, with over 23,000 TEUs each. 

Hyundai Heavy Industries is expected to sign an official agreement with Korea Development Bank on March 8 to take over Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. However, even if the deal closes, HHI will still have to solve several issues in order to fully acquire DSME. One of the issues the HHI faces is that is the evaluation of the merger proposal by major countries, such as the US, the EU, China and Japan.

The merger between Hyundai Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering is expected to boost the orderbook of LNG vessels, according to Vessels Value. The merger will double the orderbook of HHI from USD 6 billion to more than USD 12 million. In the possibility that the merger is official and finalized, the results will have reverberations in the newbuild market.

Hyundai Heavy Industries' plan to acquire Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering is experiencing difficulties, as union members of the two shipbuilders decided to start a strike to oppose to the possible takeover. The reason why the unions oppose, is that the acquisition is possible to lead to layoffs across overlapping jobs in the design, sales and research departments. 

The majority of employees working at South Korea’s DSME decided to go on strike in a bid to oppose a takeover by Hyundai Heavy Industries , on February 19. The decision to go on strike was supported by a majority of DSME workers South Korea’s Yonhap informed.

The labour union at Hyundai Heavy Industries, demanded from the company to provide job guarantees to its employees if it wants to go ahead with the takeover of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. Namely, during January, Korea Development Bank, DSME's largest shareholder, signed an MoU with Hyundai Heavy Industries to sell its stake.