DAEWOO Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co, the world's third-largest shipyard, reported a record profit in September, boosted by an increase in orders and prices for vessels to move fuel and consumer goods.
Net income was 66.7 billion won (US$73 million) last month, compared with a loss of 51.1 billion won a year earlier, the Seoul-based company said in a regulatory filing yesterday. The profit was the biggest since Daewoo Shipbuilding, which reports earnings every month, split from Daewoo Heavy Industries Co in 2001.
Shipyards in South Korea, the world's biggest shipbuilding nation, may post their highest ever annual earnings as demand for vessels rises to a record for a fifth year.
Daewoo Shipbuilding is spending at least 150 billion won to increase production as an order backlog stretches to four years.
"We will probably see a big improvement in Daewoo Shipbuilding's earnings in the fourth quarter as it starts to fully reflect orders for liquefied natural gas carriers it received since 2004," Ok Hyo Won, a Seoul-based analyst at Hyundai Securities Co, told Bloomberg News before the earnings announcement.