Samsung reports record profit

FT Nov6 2008
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K Korea shipbuilder defies（拒む） gloomy（暗い） outlook
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Third-quarter earnings climb 23% to $137m
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Samsung Heavy Industries, the world's number two shipbuilder by sales, yesterday defied predictions of gloom（陰鬱） for the industry by reporting record third-quarter earnings.
Net profit for the South Korean yard climbed 23percent year-on-year to Won 174.2bn($137m) and sales rose to a record Won2,600bn as Samsung built higher-value, higher-margin vessels.

Much of the fall was due to Won238.4bn of hedging losses after this year's 25 per cent fall in the South Korean currency against the dollar and higher raw material costs.

The cycle has already entered a downturn as new orders are falling amid（最中） the global economic slowdown, which will further reduce global trade and shipbuilding financing, said Jun Jae-chun, analyst at Daishin Securities.

Such yards are more likely to have orders from more financially sable shipowners, which are unlikely to cancel orders because of the market slump.

Such owners are more likely to have arranged all the financing necessary for their orders and face little new risk from worsening credit conditions.

Mr. Jun predicted that earnings at Samsung would not fall much in the next two quarters thanks to order backlogs that will keep the company busy during the next three years.

Hyundai, Samusung, and Daewoo- that have a combined global market share of about 40 per cent.