It will implement the reorganization plan from 1 July 2020, HHI said in a statement.

As explained, HHI 's business was negatively affected by the coronavirus pandemic, forcing the shipbuilder to find ways to overcome that crisis. According to the shipbuilder the reorganization would help HHI boost productivity and secure competitiveness.

“Currently, surviving the crisis is the first priority and therefore we will put all our capabilities and focus our efforts on achieving our management’s goals this year,” HHI stated.

In particular, HHI intends to move employees from the offshore division to the merchant ship division and use the offshore plant construction site's empty inner walls for the construction of merchant vessels such as LNG carriers, Business Korea said.

What's more, HHI plans to scale down its organization by 20 per cent by merging separate divisions. This will also lead to a reduction in HHI executives.

The global economy slowdown significantly reduced demand for new ships. In the first five months of this year, the largest three shipbuilders in South Korea experienced a sharp decline in total new orders compared to the same period.

It is despite the fact that in the last few months the Korean shipbuilders have seen an rise in orders from LNG carriers. HHI, Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) have recently inked a major deal of approximately $223.6 trillion to reserve their LNG shipbuilding capacity to meet future Quatar orders.

Maritime Business World