S. Korea's overseas industrial plant orders drop in H1

SEOUL, July 5 (Yonhap) -- Overseas orders for industrial plants won by South Korean companies dropped more than 15 percent on-year in the first half of the year due mainly to a one-off factor, the government said Tuesday. Local builders clinched US$28.3 billion worth of overseas orders for industrial plants in the January-June period, down 15.5 percent from $33.5 billion a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. The fall was attributed largely to South Korea's winning of a $18.6 billion nuclear power plant deal from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in January 2010, which represented more than half of overseas plant orders in the first half of last year. Excluding the UAE deal, the first half total marks a 90.2 percent spike from the same period last year, the ministry said. The single largest overseas order won by a South Korean firm this year was the $2.95 billion project won by STX Heavy Industries Co. to build a new desalination and diesel power plant in Iraq. Overseas orders for offshore plants shot up 151.7 percent on-year to $11.9 billion in the first half, contributing greatly to the first-half tally and already surpassing the $8.6 billion total for all of 2010. "Also responsible was the fact that Saudi Arabia, a traditionally strong market for our plant builders, was not greatly affected by the unrest in the Middle East," the ministry said in a statement. Orders for oil and gas facilities posted the largest increase of 162.3 percent, jumping to $6.69 billion from $2.55 billion for the same period last year. By region, orders from the Americas more than tripled to $4.45 billion in the January-June period from $1.35 billion a year earlier, with those from European countries also soaring 75 percent to $5.72 billion. For the remainder of the year, the ministry said overseas orders for oil and gas facilities will likely increase due to high energy prices that are driving up demand for new energy and power plants, despite lingering external uncertainties including a global economic slowdown.