South Korean shipbuilder Samjin Shipbuilding Industries Co., Ltd. (Chairman & CEO: Young Il Kang) located in Weihai China has accomplished splendid feat by winning 10 newbuilding contracts solely in April including 6 units of DWT 36K Bulk Carriers and 4 DWT 58K Bulk Carriers.
According to several researchers such as Clarksons, in April, the total amount of orders for general commercial vessel was about 90 vessels throughout the world and SSI exceeds 10% of total order which ranks SSI in the second place after STX in April, 2011.
SSI’s such big jump is noticeable considering that many medium & small shipbuilers are currently suffering from depressed market owing to oversupply of vessels compared to cargo volume and having difficulty in securing enough newbuilding orders.
Many shipowners acknowledge that SSI’s newly developed design is superior and differentiated compared with other designs in the market and are showing their keen interests.
By sensing current market trends which are requiring fuel efficient vessels in reaction to skyrocketing bunker price, SSI hit the nail right on the head by developing fuel saving design with low costs to meet customer satisfaction.
SSI’s production stability and smooth management has been widely recognized from domestic and foreign financial institutions. Financing and securing refund guarantees is the most essential and imperative factor for successful newbuilding projects from contract to delivery. Owing to current credit crunch and recess in the market both shipowners financing institutions and builder’s RG issuing banks are becoming very strict and conservative in assessing shipbuilders. In this respect, SSI is winning shipowners confidence since it has recorded 100% refund guarantee issuance for remaining orders.
SSI’s 350 Korean shipbuilding experts and engineers have been exerting their strenuous efforts to train 7,500 Chinese workers and as a result, SSI was able to deliver its highly sophisticated vessel as the first vessel that is 6,700 CEU PCTC in April, 2009 and have successfully delivered 21 vessels including bulk carriers as of today.
By its outstanding performance and shipowners favorable comments, SSI has contracted 14 vessels in 2011 and expected to receive more orders from renowned shipowners for high value added vessels such as large Container Carriers, PCTC, Heavy Cargo Carriers as special vessel.