The shipbuilding industry is abuzz with the talk of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering which set a record-high order booking volume last year. Last year was one of the worst years for shipbuilders, as they experienced an abrupt decline in newbuilding orders due to the plunge in oil prices. Nonetheless, DSME was the only shipbuilding company in Korea that reached the target order amount of US$14.5 billion, the second-highest order volume since its founding, with 69 LNG carrier orders.
Even though rivals suspect the company may have attained the ship orders by offering at rock-bottom prices, overseas publications like IHS Maritime & Trade praised, "The innovative technical prowess of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering has changed the rule of the game in the LNG carrier market completely." It was because the Korean shipbuilder led the market by introducing whole-new technologies such as the LNG-fueled engine that improved fuel efficiency by more than 20 percent and the icebreaking LNG ships that had been unheard of.
Daewoo has focused on building LNG carriers since 2010. At the time, most shipbuilders in the world were busy building offshore oil plants on the back of high oil prices. The top management of Daewoo Shipbuilding correctly forecast that there would be a boom in shale energy development and the demand for LNG-fueled ships will be on the rise due to tightened regulation on emissions.
Its PRS (pre-liquefaction system) won plaudits from the world's shipowners. The proprietary system allowed ships to save LNG fuel significantly by reusing the vaporized gas as the ship's refrigerant. Kwon Oh-ik, DSME executive who led a team to develop the technology, said, "As much as 60-70 percent of the ship's operating cost for 25-30 years of its lifetime is spent on fuel. Naturally saving fuel can save the operating cost most easily."
Source: The Korea Economic Daily
