CEO Park said the Geoje-based shipyard does not have a plan to revise its target figure down, as it expects to sign a 3 trillion won deal to build a floating liquefied natural gas facility for Italy's petroleum giant Eni SpA within this year.

Under its self-help program, Samsung Heavy plans to reduce its 14,000 workers by 40 percent overall.

Still, he dismissed speculations that Samsung Heavy and Samsung Engineering will merge, saying if merged, there will be some synergies, but at the moment they badly need to survive the unfriendly business environment.

Shipbuilders have been struggling with oversupply and declining orders since the 2008 financial crisis. The country's leading shipbuilders are under restructuring to put their businesses back on track.

In the same forum, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. President and CEO Kang Hwan-goo urged the union to cooperate with the company in tackling challenges facing the world's biggest shipbuilder by sales and orders.

Kang, who was named to lead Hyundai Heavy on Monday, formerly served as president and CEO of Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co. The two shipbuilders are flagship units of the giant Hyundai Heavy group.

"The biggest challenge facing the company is internal disagreements. There should be support or cooperation from the union over restructuring measures such as spinoffs, among others," he said.

Hyundai Heavy, with 26,300 workers on its payroll, reportedly plans to cut 4,000 jobs under its restructuring program. (Yonhap)