A local business research organization says about half of 100 South Korean companies in the shipping industry are in a critical crisis.

According to Korea20000’s analysis of management conditions of 100 shipping companies over the past two years, 51 firms were included on a list of high-risk companies as their debt ratio surpassed 400 percent.

Eighteen companies saw their debt ratios exceed one-thousand percent.

Twenty-seven of the 51 high-risk companies posted operating losses or net operating losses last year.