24 August 2015, News Wires – Two workers have reportedly died after a fire broke out Monday on a very large gas carrier (VLGC) under construction at troubled South Korean shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering.
The fire, which has been extinguished, occurred at Daewoo’s shipyard on an island south of Seoul on Monday morning local time.
Seven others were injured and taken to hospital after inhaling fumes, local reports said.
The blaze started inside the carrier, which was under construction at a dock in Geoje, Upstream’s sister publication Tradewinds reported.
The Yonhap news agency cited fire authorities as saying both men were found in a fuel tank on an 84,000-cubic-metre ship.
The shipyard told Tradewinds it was investigating the cause of the fire. Early indications suggested a welding spark may have been to blame, Yonhap reported.
Forty-seven workers were said to have been working on the vessel at the time of the blaze.
Daewoo has been struggling with huge losses so far in 2015 and booked an operating loss of $2.5 billion for the second quarter of the year – its largest quarterly loss ever.
On Friday, TradeWinds reported the yard could face a lawsuit by retail investors.
Last week, more than a dozen of the company’s executives reportedly tendered their resignations.
The yard is also trying to figure out the next step after it terminated the contract for a nearly completed drillship, Cobalt Explorer, after reaching a impasse on negotiations with Vantage Drilling over a missed payment by the customer.
– Upstream