Hanwha Group, the South Korean conglomerate, has announced a $5 billion infrastructure plan for expansion of its shipyard in Philadelphia.
The announcement came Tuesday during the christening of the State of Maine training vessel at Hanwha Philly Shipyard, and follows an earlier commitment by Seoul to invest $150 billion in American shipbuilding.
The ceremony was attended by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, among other officials. It followed Lee’s meeting Monday with President Donald Trump, where the leaders reaffirmed plans to revitalize the U.S. maritime sector.
To jumpstart the process, Hanwha Shipping’s U.S. unit has ordered 10 Jones Act oil and chemical tankers from the Philadelphia facility. It also exercised an option for a second LNG carrier, after a July order for the first such U.S.-built vessel in almost 50 years.
Hanwha, a specialist in LNG tanker construction, plans to expand the shipyard’s capacity from fewer than two vessels a year to as many as 20. The first of the new ships are scheduled for delivery in 2029.
The company said it could add space to produce the modular ship sections known as blocks, with an eye toward eventual production of naval vessels.
Hanwha employs approximately 1,500 in Philadelphia, with plans to double that to 3,000 by 2025. But industry observers told FreightWaves that the announced production goals across the domestic shipbuilding sector could take as long as 15 years to attain, given the hiring issues being seen by industrial employers. For example, regional defense companies in 2020 launched buildsubmarines.com, in an effort to spur workforce development around the submarine construction supply chain. The website was relaunched and expanded in 2023.
Find more articles by Stuart Chirls here.
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