Korea’s big three yards scout overseas acquisitions

Like they did belatedly during the last great shipbuilding boom, South Korea’s largest three shipbuilders are finally looking overseas for expansion.

During the shipping boom of 2003 to 2008, Korean yards expanded belatedly massively at home and overseas, only to be hit by more than a decade’s slump in the wake of global financial crisis.

Now, with their orderbooks pushing into the late 2020s, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (HD KSOE), Hanwha Ocean and Samsung Heavy Industries are all looking at foreign facilities to fuel expansion.

Officials from HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, who run the Hyundai chain of yards, have been in the US recently signing agreements to help develop American yards while also expanding its Vietnam subsidiary. Most interestingly, however, has been its moves at Subic Bay in the Philippines, where the conglomerate has leased a dock from what was the old Hanjin Heavy yard there – a Korean shipbuilder that ran into difficulty a decade ago.

Cido Shipping, a Hong Kong-based, Korean owner, has just signed for four aframaxes which will be built at HD KSOE’s Philippine facility with delivery scheduled for 2028.

Four bulk carriers, ordered by Japan’s Nissen Kaiun, have also begun construction at the Subic Shipyard.

Hanwha Ocean, formerly Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME), is also looking at overseas acquisitions, recently buying a 9.9% stake in Australia’s Austal, to go alongside the acquisition last year of Philly Shipyard in the US, as well as the take over of Singapore offshore yard Dyna-Mac Holdings.

Samsung Heavy Industries, meanwhile, is syphoning off more and more work to China, both to its own block manufacturer as well as to PaxOcean, a shipyard in Zhejiang province. Samsung Heavy is also understood to be eyeing further partnerships in Southeast Asia.