South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries on Thursday said net profit tumbled 62 percent in 2012 following a sharp fall in orders for high-end ships, while its fourth quarter net loss saw a severe widening.
The world’s largest shipbuilder said consolidated net profit stood at 1.038 trillion won ($954 million), while sales rose 2.4 percent year-on-year to 54.97 trillion won.
Operating profit plunged 56 percent to 1.99 trillion won, it said.
In the fourth quarter to the end of December its net loss expanded to 348 billion won from 25.4 billion won a year earlier.
Fourth-quarter sales fell 2.7 percent year-on-year to 14.1 trillion won, while operating profit plunged 94 percent to 54.3 billion won.
It blamed the weak fourth-quarter figures on deliveries of cheaper ships for orders contracted at the start of the global economic crisis. Shipbuilders take years to make deliveries and their financial accounts during a period of delivery are based on the prices at which they obtained the orders.
However, as the outlook for the global economy picks up the company said it had set a target $29.7 billion in total orders for 2013, up from $19.57 billion last year.
– Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this story –
Hyundai Heavy reports 62% fall in 2012 profit
