Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE) remains in the red but losses have narrowed sharply.
In a regulatory filing, the South Korean shipbuilding group reported a net loss of KRW 295.2bn ($234m) for 2022 despite sales rising by 11.7% to KRW 17.3trn.
The net loss was a huge improvement on the KRW 1.14trn deficit registered in 2021.
The operating loss was KRW 355.6bn, down from the previous year’s KRW 1.38trn.
The company said a weaker won against the US dollar and lower materials costs had helped to lower the losses sharply and improve its bottom line.
In its fourth-quarter results, KSOE logged a net loss of KRW 212.3bn compared with a third-quarter deficit of KRW 675.3bn.
The group believes its results will improve next year due to “heavy-tail” payments from delivering vessels contracted in 2021.
KSOE, a subsidiary of HD Hyundai — previously known as Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings — is the holding company for Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hyundai Samho and Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (HMD).
The group has set a $15.74bn newbuilding order target for its three shipyards this year, down by 10% from 2022.
Last year, it signed around $22.84bn worth of newbuildings contracts against its target of $15.05bn.
The scaling down of the target this year is due to limited berths and global economic uncertainty and is centred on Hyundai Samho.
The Mokpo shipyard’s new target was slashed by nearly 44% to $2.6bn. In 2022, it contracted about $8.66bn worth of newbuildings, overshooting its $4.605bn target by 88%.
Ulsan-based HHI and HMD have been given a marginal increase in their targets.
The Hyundai yards have so far contracted 24 newbuildings worth $3.77bn — about 24% of their annual target.
The deals include 12 methanol-fuelled neo-panamax container ships for CMA CGM, VLGCs for Evalend Shipping and LNG carriers for Dynagas.
