Geoje

Shipbuilders' fading golden age hits Geoje

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• published: 19 May 2016
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고난의 조선사: 휘청이는 거제도 지역경제 Turning our sights to Korea's shipbuilding industry. As the government wrestles with restructuring, the local community surrounding shipbuilders struggles to stay afloat while trying to pick up the pieces in the face of a harsh reality. Shin Se-min travels to Geoje city to take a closer look at the drastic twist of fate for the once seemingly invincible industry with the first installment of our two-part special. It used to be a city, proud to be called the home of leading shipbuilders,... but now it's slowly losing its vibrance. Geoje is known as the base of two of Korea's big-three shipbuilders, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering and and Samsung Heavy Industries,… which were part of a pack that once controlled nearly 70-percent of the world's market share. But now,... the entire shipbuilding industry is faced with an inevitable fate of downsizing owing to slumping oil prices and slowing global demand. "The leading shipbuilders racked up collective losses of nearly seven-and-a-half billion U.S. dollars last year... and new orders slumped to their lowest level in eleven years in February. Making matters worse,... the spillover is starting to directly affect the local economy." Neighboring shops and restaurants that largely cater to workers from the industry are starting to close shop,… due to a steep slide in business. "Sales have dropped by one-third in the first quarter this year compared to the previous quarter. I no longer see men and women in uniforms hanging out after work." The property market is no different. Contrary to a bump of nearly two percent seen in Korea's overall housing market,… prices in Geoje have gone down by one percent. In the recent months,… the rental fees of studios near Daewoo Shipbuilding have dropped by 30-percent. On the labor front,… the situation is much worse. Shipbuilders in the city are expected to cut back as many as 20-thousand employees this year from their 90-thousand strong workforce. Although restructuring is considered a much needed move to salvage the industry from its rut,... a former worker of one of the leading shipbuilding firms says things are not that simple from the eyes of employees. "Many of my former colleagues have already left their workplaces,... and it's not easy finding an alternative job... especially given the short amount of time we had and the fact that we were high-paid workers." Experts worry that losing large groups of employees with high wages in the process of corporate restructuring will result in a drop in household spending,... thereby putting the health of the local economy at greater risk. Shin Se-min, Arirang News, Geoje. Visit ‘Arirang News’ Official Pages Facebook(NEWS): http://www.facebook.com/newsarirang Homepage: http://www.arirang.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/arirangtv Twitter: http://twitter.com/arirangworld Instagram: http://instagram.com/arirangworld