SUBIC BAY FREEPORT: Top Korean shipbuilding firm Hanwha Ocean has offered to help the Philippines boost its maritime defense capabilities through a cutting-edge submarine.

Key focus areas include sonar, stealth & material tech to power next-gen K-submarines, sharpen export edge

This submarine is scheduled for completion by 2026, followed by a sea trial, and delivery to the Navy in 2028.

Canada wants to procure new submarine to replace the Navy's Victoria-class

As Korea and the United States deepen their collaboration under the “MASGA” initiative—Make American Shipbuilding Great Again—a recent wave of arrests targetin

DNV ha rilasciato l’approvazione di principio (AiP) per la progettazione pre-FEED della piattaforma eolica galleggiante offshore WindHive 15-H3 di Hanwha Ocean DNV ha rilasciato l’Appro…

Huisman has secured a third contract from #HanwhaOcean for a 2,600mt #LegEncirclingCrane, reinforcing its role in #offshorewind and heavy-lift #maritime logistics. Commissioning is scheduled in 2027 at Geoje shipyard.....

Key focus areas include sonar, stealth & material tech to power next-gen K-submarines, sharpen export edge

Key focus areas include sonar, stealth & material tech to power next-gen K-submarines, sharpen export edge

SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean aims to boost its revenue from overseas military vessels to around 4 trillion won ($2.91 billion) by 2030 and hopes to pick up more repair orders from the U.S. Navy, a senior executive told Reuters. The Asian country is a major global shipbuilder and trade talks with the U.S. on tariffs brought up possible cooperation in the sector after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to restore U.S. shipbuilding. Hanwha Ocean, formerly Daewoo Shipbuilding (KS:042660), is one of the largest shipbuilders in the world with an order book of $31.43 billion as of the end of March. It acquired a U.S. shipyard in Philadelphia last year to expand in the market. Its naval ships business, which has built dozens of submarines and surface vessels used by the South Korean Navy, has won two orders from the U.S. Navy since last year to repair and overhaul its ships for the first time. "I think we may be the biggest shipyard in the world that has taken on these maintenance, repair and overhaul orders from the U.S. Navy," said Steve SK Jeong, head of the Naval Ship Global Business at Hanwha Ocean, days after U.S. Secretary of the Navy John Phelan visited its shipyard. "It is not very profitable, but learning the process of working with the U.S. Navy is valuable, which will help if we win newbuild orders." Hanwha Ocean hoped to win a double-digit number of U.S. Navy maintenance and repair orders before 2030, Jeong said. Trump has vowed to spend "a lot of money on shipbuilding" to restore U.S. capacity, and cited concern over how his country has fallen behind in an industry that is also dominated by China. Still, U.S. laws can make it harder for foreign shipyards even if they have U.S. operations. They are prohibited from building U.S. Navy vessels, due to the Byrnes-Tollefson Amendment of the U.S. Department of Defense Appropriations Act. TRANSPLANTING PROCESSES Hanwha Ocean’s Philadelphia Shipyard is trying to get a licence that clears it to build U.S. Navy vessels, but transplanting cutting-edge manufacturing processes honed from competition with other South Korean and Chinese shipyards is not as simple as bringing in some automated welding machines, Jeong said. "I think the U.S. shipbuilding industry hasn’t had to compete very much. Facilities are old, and there’s a shortage of technicians," Jeong said. "We are looking to modernise facilities, train and equip workers, and bring in our manufacturing process that can build the same ship in, I think, two-thirds the time or less as that of a U.S. shipyard." Jeong said the company is investing in South Korea to use existing facilities and expand naval ship capacity to build five submarines and three surface vessels at the same time by 2029, from two submarines and two surface vessels now. Despite building 17 submarines for the South Korean Navy since 1987, Hanwha Ocean has only actively competed for overseas orders in the last few years as South Korea’s low birthrate and shrinking military-age population risk cooling local demand. It is competing to export submarines to Poland and Canada, a frigate to Thailand as well as knocking on the door in markets in the Middle East, South America, North Africa and Southeast Asia, to build up a sustained flow of orders that would bring foreign sales to 4 trillion won by 2030, Jeong said. ($1 = 1,376.08 won)

The proposal also encompassed broader technology transfer initiatives beyond shipbuilding.

SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea’s state-run Korea Development Bank plans to sell its shares in Hanwha Ocean, Maeil Business Newspaper reported on Monday. KDB plans to split its 19.5% shares in the shipbuilder into multiple block sales, after a bookbuilding from Monday, the newspaper reported, without citing clear sources. KDB was unavailable for comment after business hours. KDB is the second-largest shareholder in Hanwha Ocean, after Hanwha Aerospace, which owns a 30.4% stake, according to LSEG data. The shipbuilder, previously Daewoo Shipbuilding (KS:042660) & Engineering whose largest shareholder was KDB, was acquired by Hanwha Group in a takeover deal in 2022. Hanwha Ocean shares have risen 139% so far this year to their highest levels since July 2015 amid growing hopes for cooperation with the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump, since his election victory last November, has sought cooperation with South Korean shipbuilders, such as Hanwha Ocean, which acquired a shipyard in Philadelphia last year.

Key focus areas include sonar, stealth & material tech to power next-gen K-submarines, sharpen export edge

A shipowner’s survival guide to the US/China port fee war TELLING the teacher “But he started it!” is a classic playground tactic. And as countless generations of children have discovered, it is freq...