Samsung Heavy Industries to shutter one of two ship block manufacturing lines in China

Samsung Heavy Industries Co. has become another major Korean name to streamline or withdraw business in China as it has decided to sell one of its two ship bloc manufacturing lines in China as part of efforts to improve the production efficiency.

The land and the assets owned by its ship block factory Samsung Heavy Industries Ningbo in Zhejiang Province will be returned to the Chinese government. Samsung Heavy Industries will wind up remaining work by the end of the year and complete the M&A process by early next year.

The latest decision was made to improve the operation efficiency of its overseas plants. Samsung Heavy Industries Ningbo has supplied ship blocks to Samsung Heavy¡¯s main Geoje shipyard for 26 years, but its manufacturing efficiency has worsened recently due to aged facilities.

¡°Block manufacturing will be carried out at one integrated factory in Rongcheng, Shandong Province with rationalized facilities for higher productivity,¡± said a company official.

Samsung Heavy Industries built the Ningbo plant in 1995 and Rongcheng plant in 2006 to meet the growing shipbuilding demand and secure the price competitiveness. The two factories yearly output amounted to 150,000 tons and 200,000 tons as of the end of last year.

Samsung Heavy Industries shares closed 2.47 percent higher at 6,630 won in Seoul on Tuesday.

[¨Ï Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]