South Korea's fourth-largest shipbuilder yesterday said it would sack half of its 6,000 workers by next month in the first mass redundancies since Seoul sought a $20 billion (£13.4 billion) bail-out from the International Monetary Fund last week.

The announcement came as it became clear three Korean semiconductor projects in Britain faced uncertainty.

Hyundai has yet to begin raising finance for the first of two semiconductor plants it is building in Scotland at a total cost of £2.4 billion sterling. LG Electronics' plans for a semiconductor plant in south Wales, due to be built as part of a £1.7 billion complex, are also under a cloud, bankers said in Seoul.

Samsung, one of Korea's biggest conglomerates, yesterday said it would cut investments by at least 30 per cent to $6 billion next year and restrict borrowing by demanding that 70 per cent of financing for all investments should come from internal sources.

Meanwhile, Soosan group yesterday filed for bankruptcy protection due to large debts amassed after it took over Korea's sixth-biggest shipyard.

Analysts said other highly-leveraged Korean conglomerates were likely to follow the example of shipbuilders Halla Heavy Industries in dismissing workers or curbing investments, as IMF imposed austerity measures forced Korea's main industries to restructure. The Halla shipbuilding unit is the main component of Korea's 12th-largest Halla group, which has debts of 20 times equity - the highest among the leading conglomerates.