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Korea Report - December, 2017.

TOP 10 NATIONAL NEWS.

Park impeached, prosecuted for graft.

NKorea claims ‘completion’ of nuke program.

Suneung postponed amid quake fears.

Moon takes presidency in snap election.

Moon’s war against ‘accumulated ills’.

Sewol ferry raised, bodies found.

Minimum wage to rise to KW7,530.

THAAD row takes toll on Korean economy.

Seoul takes on property speculation.

Tragic deaths and scandals in entertainment.

In 2017, many Korean shipbuilders have achieved its performance goal set at the beginning of the year, indicating a turnaround from 2016’s severe order drought. Korean shipbuilders have led global tanker newbuilding market, signing also a few meaningful offshore deals, to surpass a total of $21.2 bil of order intake. According to industry statistics and ASIASIS’ survey, Hyundai Triplets (HHI, HSHI and HMD) have bagged 150 units of merchant vessels worth $10 bil in 2017. The number contains 11 containerships, 41 tankers (crude carriers, including 23 VLCCs), 47 Product carriers, 21 bulkers, 15 gas carriers, four Ro-Ro ships, four methanol carriers, and one sulphur carrier. The consolidated orderbook of the three companies at the end of Nov reached a total of 243 units worth $1.9 bil. The number has shown steady increase entering fourth quarter. HHI Group already have surpassed its 2017 goal $7.5 bil by a wide margin. It also showed a high level of confidence in the market recovery, setting 2018 shipbuilding and offshore goals at $13.2 bil and $1.6 bil respectively. SHI also has surpassed the original goal of $6.5 bil, bagging 28 units worth $6.9 bil. It includes eight crude carriers, seven shuttle tankers, six containerships, five LNG ships (including two LNG-FSRUs), one FPU and one FLNG. The orderbook at the end of Nov reached $20.6 bil. DSME has won 25 units worth $2.96 bil in 2017. The orders include four units of LNG ships and FSRUs, 15 crude carriers, five containerships, and one special purpose vessel. Its orderbook at the end of Nov holds 92 units worth $23.8 bil. While it could not have achieved its original goal of $5.5 bil (merchant vessel, $3 bil; offshore, $1.5 bil; special purpose vessel, $1 bil), it managed to fulfill $2 bil target Samjong KPMG had reported to the creditors. Hanjin HIC, wielding ‘two-track strategy,’ won 10 warships for Yeongdo yard, while Subic yard’s result is left concealed. Two VLGCs for Statoil-Exmar are also not fixed yet. Its orderbook (for Subic) contains 16 units at the beginning of Dec, according to Clarkson Research. STX O&S has won 13 units (RG issued for 11 units) worth $360 mil (estimated) plus 4 optional units. All of them are PCs, with five 11K units and eight 50K units. Its orderbook contains the 13 units plus another four units which are being constructed. Sungdong has won about $200 mil worth 115K tankers (all RG issued) in 2017. Its orderbook holds only the five units. Daehan Shipbuilding has bagged 14 units worth $530 mil, of which eight are 115K product carriers, two are 115K aframax tankers, four are fishery patrol ships (two 1,470t units, two 1,500t units). DaeSun won orders for 14 units worth $260 mil, which is over 90% of its original target, 11 units at around $280 mil in terms of value. It consists of six containerships, four tankers, two tuna purse seiners, two government vessels. Its orderbook contains 25 units, of which 13 are tankers, six are containerships, five are special purpose vessels (including one ferry), and one equipment procurement contract for Peru.

TOPICS.

TOP 10 DOMESTIC NEWS OF 2017 (p.2)

President Moon on 14th called for stronger ties with China (p.3)

2018 government budget passed on 5th with 11.7% on-year increase (p.4)

Ministry is to reduce reliance on large nuclear power and coal plants (p.5)

USA and China might determine Korea’s fate as they did in ‘50s (p.6)

NK called the latest UN sanctions "an act of war" that violates its sovereignty (p.7)

NKorean missile launched on Nov 29th was an ICBM that can fly more than 13,000 km (p.8)

SKorea's GNI stood at KW1,639 tril last year, roughly 45 times larger than NK (p.9)

SKorea decided to raise the maximum corporate tax rate to 25% from current 22% (p.9)

In 2017, SKorea's trade surplus came to $95.8 bil (p.10)

SKorea ranked No 4 among the easiest places in the world to do business (p.11)

SEC’s Galaxy smartphone brand stood as SKorea's most valuable brand in 2017 (p.12)

Korean Air brought in Korea’s first CS300 jet from Bombardier (p.14)

SKorean washers are receiving top reviews from US consumers, while USITC slap tariffs

for protectionism (p.14)

HMC pledged to roll out 38 green car models by 2025 from current 13 (p.15)

KEPCO was selected as preferred bidder for Moorside nuclear power plant in UK (p.16)

KWon strengthened to 1,070 against USDollar (p.17)

SKorea's foreign exchange reserves reached $389.27 bil as of end Dec (p.17)

In 2017, many Korean shipbuilders have achieved its performance goal (p.17)

HHI Group is putting the final piece of its grand scheme of restructuring (p.20)

Eight Korean banks are set to issue refund guarantees to SHI in rotation (p.21)

Samkang S&C is to start the first and only large repair/conversion yard in Korea (p.23)

MOF and MOTIE signed MOU to examine feasibility of Korean LNG-powered vessel project (p.23)

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