A number of creditor banks to South Korea’s STX Offshore & Shipbuilding have decided to stop supporting the yard, saying its troubles – and the shipbuilding industry’s as a whole – are not worth throwing more money at.
Shinhan Bank becomes the latest creditor to yank support, joining Woori Bank and KEB Hana Bank.
Nevertheless, state-backed banks are continuing to support the shipbuilder, which five years ago could claim to be the fourth largest in the world before it ran into difficulties.
Korea Development Bank (KDB), the Export-Import Bank of Korea and Nonghyup Bank have committed to support STX with further funding having approved its restructuring plan that sees huge redundancies, a wage freeze and a commitment to focus on less ship products.
STX has been under the control of creditors since 2013, and the creditors have provided over KRW4trn ($3.6bn) to the yard to date with more coming.
