HHI Sees Exports
Double in 4 Years

Wins the $10 billion Export Tower Award

Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), the world's largest shipbuilder, has won the prestigious $10 billion Export Tower Award during the Trade Day anniversary.
HHI has seen its exports double in four years, from $5.1 billion in 2003 to $10.3 billion in 2007. The latest figure represents a 40 percent surge over last year.
The company chalked up 7.55 trillion won in sales in the first half of the year, up 30 percent over the same period last year, thanks to the booming shipbuilding market and its competitive edge. HHI's 2007 sales are projected to grow to 15.2 trillion won.
From 2008 on, HHI's record sales are forecast to continue, thanks to a rise in orders. HHI won $19.2 billion worth of orders in the first eight months of this year, surpassing the value of last year's orders.
HHI aims to become one of the world's largest heavy industry companies by increasing its sales by $22.5 billion by the year 2010.
The company is now concentrating its focus on considering profitability in the course of landing shipbuilding orders,
as HHI's shipbuilding division accounts for half of its total sales. This strategy helps the company maintain its operating income rate at 15 percent, three to four times as high as other companies in the shipbuilding industry. In the first nine months of the year, HHI received orders to build 123 ships, while constructing a backlog of 327 ships ordered from 74 ship owners in 25 countries.
In another feat, HHI's ship engine business division currently holds a 35 percent share of the global engine market. The company is expected to raise the cumulative horsepower to 70 million this year for the first time.
HHI is attempting to increase its competitiveness by expanding its transformer plants. It plans to establish locally incorporated firms in North America and the Middle East, where it is actively seeking orders in heavy electric equipment and components.
In the construction equipment sector, HHI has already established three locally incorporated production firms in China. It plans to invest 46 billion won to establish a locally incorporated company in India, in a bid to gain an upper hand in the emerging market.
The high value-added plant engineering business is considered to be a future growth industry. HHI built nine Floating Production Storage & Offloading Units, each worth $1 billion. One more is under construction. This past June, HHI landed a 1 trillion won power generation project from Saudi Arabia, as the latest in a string of large orders from the Middle East.
HHI is implementing long term investment projects to maintain long term growth. It is constructing an additional super-sized shipbuilding dock at the Ulsan plant, with an investment of 134.1 billion won. It is working concurrently on a project to build a ship block plant on a 1.5 million square meter lot in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province. The company has already launched a project to build an engine plant for liquefied natural gas ships in Yeongam, South Jeolla Province.
It plans to pour 260 billion won into expanding the Ulsan engine plant. nw

HHI CEO & President Choi Kil-seon. HHI's shipyard is humming with a heap of shipbuilding backlog and new orders.