Sungdong Shipbuilding fills order book for 2 tuna purse seiners

South Korean Sungdong Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering announced it received two tuna purse seiner orders from two Korean fishing industry companies, Sajo Industries and Sajo Oyang.

The two companies each ordered 1,900 tonnes of ship equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, including fish finders, sonar, radar, and satellite communications. The vessels will be delivered in late 2013. Sajo Industries had already ordered another purse seiner from the ship builder in 2010.

A tuna purse seiner is the most advanced vessel type among deep-sea fishing vessels. The tuna purse seiner business will be a blue ocean industry for ship builders as the demands for changing and upgrading will increase sooner or later, some analysts said.

According to the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MIFAFF), ships older than 21 years totaled 318 ships (84%) among 379 domestic deep-sea fishing vessels in 2010. As a result, the need for changing to new built vessels is growing. < 김보람 기자 brkim@ksg.co.kr >