Hyundai profits skyrocket

Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) benefited from the global boom in shipbuilding by managing almost to quadruple its profits in 2006. Profits reached a record 712.8 billion won ($761 million) in 2006, up from 183.3 billion won in 2005. Improved productivity and higher delivery prices made a significant difference to the results, the company said.

Turnover in 2006 was up 21.2% on the previous 12 months to 12.6 trillion won ($13.4 billion). In the final three months of 2006, net profit at HHI reached 295.7 billion won, or more than four times the result for the same period of 2005. Revenues grew by 27% to 3.6 trillion won in the last quarter.

The company said that it had attracted 114 orders for new ships in 2006 with a value of $11.5 billion compared to 82 orders in 2005. The number of ships delivered also increased from 69 to 79.

“With 271 ships on order backlog (as at the end of December), HHI has a sufficient workload to keep the shipyard occupied for more than three years,” said a spokesman for Ulsan dockyard. HHI expects to achieve an increase in revenue of 20% to 15.2 trillion won in 2007.

New contracts amounted to $18.1 billion compared to $19.05 billion in the previous year, according to HHI, which also builds offshore rigs.