SEOUL, KOREA - Korea's "big three" shipbuilders have reached their order targets for the year. Amid a situation where shipbuilding business conditions are improving, the companies made big strides by offering technologically superior ships at lower cost.

 

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, for example, achieved on December 17 its target booking volume of $13 billion for the year by winning a $539-million order to build six container ships from Europe's Zodiac Maritime Agencies Ltd.

 

Hyundai Heavy Industries has also exceeded its target volume of $23.8 billion by booking $24.3-billion orders. Samsung Heavy Industries achieved 97 percent of its 2014 target of $12.6 billion.

 

It has been two years since the big-three shipbuilding companies accomplished their order targets in 2011 when the commercial shipping market rebounded after a downturn following the 2008 global financial crisis. But the market fell again due to the eurozone fiscal crisis beginning in late 2011. Last year only Daewoo Shipbuilding could achieve its target while others fell far short of the goal.