This photo provided by Samsung Heavy Industries Co. on Jan. 2, 2023, shows a group of 41 Indonesian workers posing for the camera after arriving at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, two days earlier.
SEOUL, Jan. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries Co. said Monday a total of 41 Indonesian welders have arrived here to work at its shipyard on the southern coast.
The Indonesians, who arrived Saturday, mark the single largest batch of foreign workers to come to South Korea since the government eased visa regulations for them in December in a bid to help deal with a manpower shortage facing the local shipbuilding industry.
The Indonesian welders will start working at Samsung Heavy’s Geoje shipyard after receiving education on workplace safety, the shipyard said.
Samsung Heavy said the shipbuilder and its subcontractors had hired a combined 782 foreign workers as of end-December last year, adding it is planning to raise the number to around 1,200 this year.
Samsung Heavy said it has implemented a variety of measures for foreign workers, including the provision of dormitories and interpreters, adding it will push to employ domestic and foreign workers to cope with a labor shortage.
Samsung Heavy, the world’s third-largest shipbuilder by order backlog, is the shipbuilding arm of South Korea’s top family-controlled conglomerate, Samsung Group, whose marquee unit is global tech behemoth Samsung Electronics Co.
Amid a recent surge in ship orders, South Korean shipbuilders have been dogged by a labor shortage due mainly to large-scale layoffs that they carried out to cope with tumbling orders five to six years ago.
(Yonhap)
