Korean Govt to Ask Oil Refiners to Stem Cash Payments

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Grassroots Information Coordination Center (GICC) : One Thread

11/21 21:28 Korean Govt to Ask Oil Refiners to Stem Cash Payments (Update2) By Heejin Koo

Seoul, Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The Korean government will ask SK Corp. and other oil refiners to refrain from paying for oil with U.S. dollars, aiming to bolster the skidding won.

Ministry of Finance and Economy officials said they will meet oil refinery executives at 3 p.m. to make the request, hoping to prop up the currency after it plunged yesterday to a one-year low of 1,171.05. Some local oil refiners said they may delay cash payments by as much as two weeks in response.

``We may delay cash payments by one to two weeks,'' said Shin Sung Do, a finance official at S-Oil Corp., the nation's third- largest oil refiner. ``Other than that, we will carry on as planned.''

Oil refiners are buying dollars to pay for oil imports rather than buying on credit to limit their debt as the latest fiscal year draws to an end. Korean companies are required by the government to keep their debt-equity ratios to below 200 percent. The won was trading at 1,162.3 early today.

http://www.bloomberg.com/bbn/windex.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), November 22, 2000


Moderation questions? read the FAQ