The beat in Korea goes on in spite of it all.
One of the drill ships I participated in the building of gave me my introduction to the amazing organization that is Korean ship building.
A team came into the office in Houston, stayed about 4 weeks, left with the design and specifications and built the ship. It was almost like ordering from a check the box menu. We sent two people over to represent us and be there for liaison to fill in gaps along the way then the shakedown, remedies and came home with a drill ship. The biggest problems came with third party supplied items like blow-out preventers.
You had to be there and move fast or risk getting built into some small space of the ship.
There was no covid of course.
I’ve read about the Korean shipyards and the way they crank out container ships like we used to build Liberty ships. Pretty darned impressive. But then the SK’s have a large, modern steel industry capable of feeding those shipyards.