The three largest shipbuilders (Hyundai Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, and Samsung Heavy Industries) seem to slash at least 4,000 more workers this year in efforts to improve their competitiveness as the industry continues its restructuring.
The three shipbuilding companies plan to continue this restructuring through additional reductions of their workforces and self-rescue plans as sales performance have not improved even after restructuring in line with a 40% progress rate in their self-rescue plans
Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) plans to restructure its workforce after it cut 3,400 jobs last year through voluntary retirement programs, bringing the number to 23,400 by the end of 2016, down from the 26,800 it employed earlier in the year. Executive salaries continued to drop also in efforts to improve corporate competitiveness.
Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) cut 2,000 workers last year and will lay off an additional 2,000 workers this year. The number of workers at DSME will be reduced to 8,500 by the end of this year from 13,200 at the end of 2015. Starting in January 2017, about 200 office workers will go on a month-long unpaid leave as part of efforts to reduce costs. The rest of the 4,700 office workers will take along unpaid leaves in turns, in line with corporate actions for self-rescue.
A total of 5,000 workers at Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) will be cut by the end of 2018, including the 1,800 workers laid off last year, in accordance with the company’s self-rescue plans. Executive and manager salaries will continue to be cut until next year in an effort to enhance competitiveness.