Samsung Ningbo, the Chinese yard owned by South Korean shipbuilding major Samsung Heavy Industries, has implemented a compulsory vacation plan with its employees due to a lack of new orders.
Sources at the shipyard told Splash that the plan, which will be applied to all the shipyard’s employees, will start from the outfitting department and the duration of the vacation will be three to six months according to different posts.
The shipyard will pay the employees by the local minimum wage standard during the period.
“The employees believe it is a disguised layoff measure by the company,” the source said.
Currently Samsung Ningbo has on hand orders for nine 50,000 dwt tankers from Maersk Tankers, with one of the nine vessels delivered and another five are under construction.
According to the source, Samsung Ningbo plans to outsource the projects in order to save costs.
In December last year, Samsung Heavy Industries announced a recapitalization scheme through a rights offering of around $1.4bn to pay off maturing debt and clean up its balance sheet. Last week, the shipbuilder said it expects to return to profit in 2019.
