Korea’s Hyundai heavy bags $3.2 bln order for power plant

Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., South Korea’s leading shipbuilder, said Tuesday it has clinched a US$3.2 billion order to build a power plant in Saudi Arabia. Under the deal with state-run Saudi Electricity, Hyundai Heavy will build the thermal power plant by 2017 in the coastal city of Jeddah, it said. The 2,640 megawatt-generating plant will be equivalent to 5 percent of Saudi Arabia’s total electricity supply, according to Hyundai Heavy. South Korean shipbuilders have been diversifying their business portfolio in the face of falling shipbuilding orders as demand slows from European shippers, according to South Korea’s (Yonhap) News Agency. Shares of Hyundai Heavy were trading at 234,000 won on the Seoul bourse as of 11:15am down 0.85%.