MEXICO: South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) has dropped plans to build a yard in Southeast Asia.
In a filing to the Korea Exchange on 29 October, SHI director Oh Byung-Chan said, “We were examining the establishment of a yard in Southeast Asia. But the recent situation in the market and our operations, we have decided not to pursue this plan.”
In October 2014, SHI told IHS Maritime that it was considering opening a yard in Southeast Asia to tap lower labour costs.
But the oil shock and the plunge in demand for drillships that are SHI’s key products has affected its financial performance.
Some customers have asked to defer drillship deliveries while SHI’s work on the Egina FPSO (floating production storage and offloading) was halted by the Nigerian court over contract breaches.
On 28 October, Luxembourg-based Pacific Drilling cancelled the order for the drillship Pacific Zonda, citing SHI’s failure to deliver it on time.
IHS Maritime’s Sea-Web data shows Pacific Zonda, which has been launched, was ordered for USD620 million in January 2013. It was supposed to be delivered in October 2015.
