South Korea's Samsung Heavy Industries, the world's second largest shipbuilder, said Monday it has secured new orders worth a total of 2.41 billion dollars. The company said it won a 1.15 billion dollar contract to build two semi-submersible floating drilling rigs by September 2010 for an unidentified Russian client. Separately, clients in Africa and in the Americas ordered two oil drilling ships worth 1.26 billion dollars which will be delivered by May 2011, it said. South Korea, home to seven of the world's top 10 shipyards, clinched record orders last year because of strong demand for crude carriers and offshore exploration equipment as oil prices remained high. The trend continued in the first six months of this year, when local shipbuilders secured a record 33.2 billion dollars' worth of orders -- up 51.3 percent from a year earlier. |