Heavy industry enjoys eye-popping upturn

Large scale business exchanges between enterprises helped heavy industry to improve in some of the best showings since the Asian currency crisis.

According to heavy industry company, Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction (formerly Hankook Heavy Industry), they went KRW 24.8 billion into the black last year, way up from 2000?s KRW 24.8 billion in the red after Doosan took over electric?power generation facilities from Samsung Heavy Industries and Hyundai Heavy Industries at the end of 1999.

Orders and sales showed KRW 3.62 trillion and KRW 2.46 trillion, increases of 9.5% and 2.5% over the previous year, respectively. The company aims to achieve KRW 2.95 trillion in sales and KRW 130.1 billion in net profit this year, increases of over 20% for sales and 400% for net profits.

An official at Doosan said, "Thanks to favorable orders during the first quarter of this year, we posted an 84% increase compared to the same period last year. As a matter of fact, we would like to exceed our total net profits of last year within the first four months. Resolute restructuring strengthened the company?s profits base with around 1,000 employees being downsized and large portions of real estate being sold off.

HSD engine, an engine parts company assimilated by Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction Co., and Samsung Heavy Industries from January 2000, expanded its sales and ordinary profit to KRW 600 billion and KRW 29 billion from KRW 420 billion and KRW 10 billion, respectively.

Especially, only 2 years since its integrated inauguration, Strikingly, as only two years have passed since HSD Engine was taken over by DHI and SHI, it has passed 7.2 million HP (horse power) of accumulated engine power production; this stand in stark contrast to its previous showing: between October 1984 and its take over in 2000, a 17 year period, Doosan produced produced 200 million HP of accumulated engine power.

Korea Aerospace Industries, an integrated aerospace business launched in October 1999, succeeded becoming profitable this year by selling off its Seosan factory and other unprofitable businesses.

?With a 2 year long reshuffling after big business deals, most unfruitful factors have been removed. And conflicts and friction from the midst of the merge process has also been mostly resolves. Founded on this result, each company will make a flight this year,?said a related official.