Worlds top three to maintain record-high prices

South Korea?s big three shipbuilders, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and Samsung Heavy Industries plan to keep newbuilding ship prices at record highs for a third year as they seek to shield earnings against dropping orders and higher steel costs.

All three yards will book new orders around today’s all-time highs, according to four out of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The companies will give their outlooks for 2007 as early as this week.

South Korea’s yards took almost half of this year’s orders in the world’s $100 billion newbuilding ship industry but, with business set to fall from this year’s peak, the shipbuilders want to avoid a repeat of 2004, when they didn’t foresee a jump in the cost of steel plates that wiped out two-thirds of profit.

LNG tankers, one of the most complex and expensive ship type, cost a record $220 million in early December compared with $205 million at the end of last year, according to London-based ship broker Clarkson. A VLCC now cost an all-time high of $129 million which is 7.5% more than a year ago.