Storming start to the year for Hyundai Heavy

Seoul: Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., the world's biggest shipbuilder, said yesterday that its orders rocketed twentyfold in the first four months of 2010 over the year-ago period, signaling that the industry has bottomed out and is now in recovery mode.

The company's total orders through April hit $4.3 billion -- including $1.5 billion for ships -- compared with $220 million a year earlier. In April alone, Hyundai and its subsidiary Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co. won orders to build three large crude oil carriers as well as ships for transporting liquefied petroleum gas and cars. In February, it won an order to build a $2.6 billion offshore crude oil storage facility.   [04/05/10]