Samsung Heavy Industries, a major shipyard in South Korea, said Monday that its net losses widened in the fourth quarter from a year earlier due to one-off costs. 

Net losses for the October-December period deepened to 124.2 billion won (US$104 million) from 105.7 billion won a year earlier, the company said. 

The company said it set aside 67 billion won as loan-loss provision for the delay in payment from a client. 

Samsung Heavy posted an operating loss of 215 billion won in the fourth quarter, compared with an operating loss of 133.7 billion won in the same period the year before. 

Still, sales rose to 2.15 trillion won in the fourth quarter from 1.36 trillion won in the same period in 2018. 

For the whole of 2019, Samsung Heavy's net losses widened to 1.11 trillion won, compared with 388.2 billion won in 2018. 

Samsung Heavy said it is aiming to clinch $8.4 billion worth of new orders this year. 

The figure marks an 18 percent hike from last year's total orders.

Shares in Samsung Heavy fell 1.05 percent to 6,580 won, underperforming the broader KOSPI's 0.01 percent decline. (Yonhap)