Daewoo Shipyard which was spun off from Daewoo Heavy Industries on October 23, is going through one of the busiest periods in their history with surging orders for various types of ships. The company recently signed contracts to build a 138,000 cbm LNG ship for Exmar N.V. of Belgium and three 20,000 GT ro-ro passenger ferries for Strintzis Lines of Greece.

Officials said "During this month, we won orders for seven ships worth $600 million including three 4,115 TEU containerships." They added, "Since we have 2 years work already booked, we will place bigger emphasis on building of value-added ships."Up to now, Daewoo Shipyard has been granted orders for 50 ships worth $3 billion including 11 very large crude carriers and aims to get orders for 60-plus ships amounting to $4 billion for this year.

A strong competition for more control of the global containership newbuilding market is looming as Japan has stepped up its restructuring efforts to catch up with the world’s No. 1 shipbuilding country Korea. Industry sources said that Japan’s big 3 shipyards, namely Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries, and Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding, joined hands to fight competition from their rival shipyards in Korea.