Shipyard closure to render 5,600 offshore workers redundant

Abiodun Obadayo |

Following the decision of South Korean shipbuilder, Hyundai Heavy Industries to temporarily shut down its offshore shipyard due to a lack of orders, about 5,600 offshore workers shall become redundant, 2,600 of which are regular employees and 3,000 are supplier workforce.

Yonhap citing the company said the facility will run out of work by the end of July when it finalizes its last order secured in November 2014.

It is scheduled to close its doors in August 2018, marking the first time it shuts down since the start of operations in 1983.

The shipbuilder opted for the move as it cannot afford the yard’s operations until it receives new orders.

HHI has not been able to fetch any new deals for offshore units in the past three years.

Although it competed in a number of tenders for newbuilding orders, Hyundai Heavy Industries lost the offshore contracts to Chinese and Singaporean rivals.

Additionally, the company informed that it would need to decrease current production costs in order to gain competitiveness and secure shipbuilding orders.