K Shipbuilding, formerly STX, was once one of South Korea’s largest shipbuilders, but has been facing financial difficulties for years. The latest attempt to sell the shipyard was unsuccessful.
In the early 2000s, the future looked more than just bright for STX Offshore & Shipbuilding: the South Korean shipbuilding company was one of the largest shipyards in its domestic market and was even able to expand into Europe. Founded in 1967 as Dongyang Shipbuilding Industry, it was renamed STX in 2002 and made the leap into Western markets. The South Koreans bought shipyards in France and Finland, and their international portfolio grew. However, with the 2008 financial crisis, orders plummeted and the company ran into financial difficulties.
The European shipyards had to be sold off again. The French site in St. Nazarie has been operating once again as Chantiers de l’Atlantique since 2018, when Fincantieri took over, and is now one of Europe’s largest shipbuilding companies. The three Finnish shipyards met with different fates: the site in Rauma was closed, half of the Helsinki site was acquired by Russian owners (Helsinki Shipyard is now owned by the Inocea Group), and the shipyard in Turku, now operating as Meyer Turku, builds the world’s largest cruise ships – the company recently delivered the “Legend of the Seas” to the Royal Caribbean Group.
STX itself was taken over in 2021 by the South Korean private equity firm KHI and the investor United Asset Management (UAMCO). Since then, the company has slowly begun to recover: Its debts were cleared after a while, and orders in the low-price segment were fulfilled. In 2025, STX returned to profit for the first time in 14 years. Added to this is CMMC certification, which entitles the company to participate in US defence and maintenance projects.
Sole bidder withdrew its interest
In light of these recent successes, the investors announced their intention to sell the company. Only Korean parties were eligible to bid. A single bidder submitted an offer: the petrochemical and textile company Taekwang Industrial. However, in a statement earlier this week, Taekwang announced that the negotiations had broken down due to differences between its offer and the seller’s demands.
KHI and UAMCO, which together hold 99 per cent of the shares in STX, have now stated that they intend to review the process for the time being and only then decide whether to launch a new tender. As a medium-sized shipyard, STX could soon benefit from financial support from the state: Last year, the government announced its intention to strengthen the sector through targeted investment, as more orders were expected in light of the geopolitical situation. South Korea was still the world’s leading shipbuilding nation in the 2000s, but has since been overtaken by China by a wide margin.
