A large number of South Korean companies have suffered credit rating downgrades this year due largely to poor performances stemming from protracted weak demand at home and abroad, market data showed Monday.
  

Korea Ratings, one of the nation's big three credit appraisers, said it has cut the ratings on 58 companies by November, near the worst level since 1998 when the number hit 63 in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis.
  

Only eight companies' credit ratings were upgraded this year, it said.
  

The construction sector was hit hardest by the industry-wide slump since the 2008 global financial crisis, with nine being marked down.
  

Major shipbuilders were also downgraded after logging huge operating losses from order cancellations and a delay in the construction of offshore facilities, while major refiners, engineering and airlines received lower ratings.
  

The rating downgrades has sparked worries over the rising borrowing costs for the companies that plan to raise money via debt sales amid global uncertainties such as the slowing Chinese economy and the U.S. interest rate hike.
  

"The global economic slowdown has increased the financial burden on companies or worsened their credit ratings across the board," Song Tae-joon, a senior researcher at Korea Ratings, said. "The market is also concerned about the ripple effect from a potential U.S. interest rate hike." (Yonhap)