Offshore Sector Continues to Sustain Shipyards as DSME Wins $1.96 Billion Platform Order

(Bloomberg) — Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. won a 2.22 trillion won ($1.96 billion) order to build five fixed platforms as rising demand for energy products helps South Korean shipyards weather a slowdown in vessel orders.

The units will be delivered to a customer in Africa by April 2016, the Seoul-based shipbuilder said in a filing today. It didn’t elaborate.
The company’s shares rose the most since Aug. 9 in Seoul trading after the order, which followed the shipbuilder’s first contract for a floating liquefied natural gas plant in June. In total, Daewoo expects to boost orders for offshore equipment 34 percent this year to $8.5 billion, it said in April.

The shipbuilder closed up 1.8 percent at 27,650 won. Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., the world’s biggest shipbuilder, climbed 2.2 percent.

Daewoo had booked a total of $5.85 billion of new orders this year as of the end of June, according to a statement on its website. Offshore accounted for 70 percent of orders in the period, compared with 44 percent for the whole of last year.