Hyundai to build dry dock number 10

Hyundai Heavy Industries plans to build its 10th dry dock in Korea to meet rising orders. The construction of the dry dock, 640 metres long and 92 metres wide, will be completed by January 2009. “We have a three-year backlog and our nine dry docks are already fully booked, while owners cannot wait for a long time to have their ships delivered,” a Hyundai official said. According to the official, the shipbuilder plans to install a crane which has a lifting capacity of 1,600 tons at the new dry dock.

The shipbuilder has clinched orders of around $11 billion so far this year, achieving more than 80% of its 2007 target. In the first six months of the year, local shipbuilders also secured a record $33.2 billion worth of orders, buoyed by a surge in global demand for new vessels, up 51.3% from a year earlier.