S Korea's agri trade deficit to reach record high in 2007

---

SEOUL, Dec 24 (Agencies): The South Korean government said today that the country's agricultural trade deficit is expected to reach a record high of over 10 billion US dollars for the first time this year.
According to the ministry of agriculture and forestry and the state-run agriculture and fisheries marketing corporation (AFMC), the country's agricultural trade deficit reached 9.97 billion US dollars as of November, up 27 per cent from 2006.
The deficit might reach 11.01 billion US dollar for the full year, they said.
According to the government, in the first 11 months of the year, imports reached 12.13 billion US dollars, while exports totalled 2.15 billion US dollars.
In 2006, South Korea's agricultural trade deficit stood at 8.68 billion US dollars.
The government said the sharp increase of this year's agricultural trade deficit is mainly due to high international grain prices.
Meanwhile, South Korea's Samsung Heavy Industries, the world's second largest shipbuilder, said today 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 per cent from a year earlier.