[Yonhap News Photo]
In a bid to salvage its embattled shipbuilding industry, South Korea presented the idea of placing special public orders for more than 250 ships worth 9.6 billion US dollars Monday in return for the closure of seven docks at three major shipyards and a 32 cut in their combined workforce.
The program, outlined at a meeting of economic officials led by Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho, was aimed at regaining the competitiveness of South Korea's shipbuilding industry through speedy restructuring. Yoo suggested the government would place special orders worth 11 trillion won ($9.6 billion) to build more than 250 ships by 2020.
Such orders will not be enough to ease a prolonged slump in the shipbuilding industry, Yoo said, urging top three shipyards -- Hyundai Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, and Samsung Heavy Industries -- to speed up the sale of none-core assets.
By 2018, the three shipyards are required to streamline their bloated structure by closing seven of their 31 docks and reduce their total workforce from 62,000 to 42,000.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
