Shareholders of Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), South Korea’s top shipyard, have approved a restructuring plan whereby the conglomerate will be split up. The decision comes against a backdrop of severe employee dissatisfaction with a third day of strikes hitting the yard.
The company will now be split into four different affiliates: shipbuilding, electronics, construction equipment and robotics.
HHI, like many other Korean yards, has been hit hard by the fall in oil prices leading to many offshore contracts being scrapped while demand for commercial ships remains anemic. HHI has laid off thousands of workers in the past year, with more likely to be let go in 2017.