South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries has decided to temporarily shut down its offshore shipyard due to a lack of orders, Yonhap said citing the company.

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.

The shipyard closure will leave some 5,600 offshore workers redundant, 2,600 of which are regular employees and 3,000 are supplier workforce.

World Maritime News Staff