Korea aims to win $80 bil. marine industrial plant orders in 2020

Korea aims to secure $80 billion worth of marine industrial plant orders in 2020 by strengthening its competitiveness in engineering and key component building areas, the government said Wednesday.

The plan, which strives for a three-fold increase in orders, comes as global research data predicted the sector will grow into a $320 billion business by the target year from just $140 billion last year, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said. In 2011, Korean companies such as Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. secured $25.7 billion in building orders.

Marine industrial plants include such facilities as drill ships, floating production storage and offloading, offshore support vessels and floating production units.

The ministry said to build competitiveness, efforts will be made to train qualified engineering personnel, strengthen the country's components infrastructure, build capacity in constructing hightech, value-added plants and create a marine industry cluster.

The ministry in charge of the country's industrial policy said the development plan will draw on the country's strength in the shipbuilding industry.

If all goes according to plan, the percentage of critical engineering and components manufacturing that can be carried out in the country without relying on foreign assistance will go up from 40 percent as of last year, to 60 percent in 2020, it said. Such gains translate into more earnings and jobs for South Korea.

Officials said the exact amount of support to go into the plan cannot be disclosed, but said total research and development from both the private and public sections will reach 300 billion won ($263 million). (Yonhap)