South Korea’s HD Hyundai Heavy Industries has confirmed it is in talks with multiple firms to buy a US shipyard, a move aimed at tapping into Washington’s resurgent naval build-up under president Donald Trump.
A senior HD Hyundai executive told Reuters in Ulsan that the Korean conglomerate has set a target of $2.2bn in annual US revenues by the year 2035, and that acquisition targets in the US are being reviewed at present.
HD Hyundai has already been busy building bridges across the Pacific. The group has established multiple US joint ventures in recent years, particularly in engines, offshore engineering, and LNG. Its engine arm has long supplied propulsion systems for Jones Act tankers, while its offshore unit has inked technology-sharing agreements with Gulf Coast players. More recently, HD Hyundai Marine Solution has partnered with US digital firms on smart-ship systems.
HD Hyundai also recently announced a $2bn joint investment fund with Cerberus to finance US naval and offshore newbuilds. The two companies are already working together at a yard in the Philippines. Earlier this summer, South Korea’s largest shipbuilder said it will work with Edison Chouest Offshore (ECO) to get mid-sized LNG dual-fuel containerships built in the US by 2028. In April, HD Hyundai signed an MOU with Huntington Ingalls Industries, the largest defence shipbuilder in the US, to jointly advance productivity and high-tech shipbuilding practices. It also entered a supply chain partnership with Fairbanks Morse Defense and signed an education-focused MOU last year with the University of Michigan and Seoul National University to cultivate talent in the shipbuilding sector.
South Korea has made shipbuilding the anchor of its trade diplomacy with Washington, rolling out billions in promises to revive America’s rusted yards in a bid to keep Trump on side.
President Lee Jae Myung’s first US trip last month saw him push a $350bn investment package, with $150bn earmarked for shipbuilding under the slogan ‘Make America Shipbuilding Great Again.’
The centrepiece is the development by HD Hyundai’s rival Hanwha Ocean of Philly Shipyard, a yard it acquired last year. Last month, Hanwha unveiled a $5bn expansion plan for Hanwha Philly Shipyard as well as ordering 10 tankers to be built in Philadelphia.
Meanwhile, Samsung Heavy Industries, the other Korean shipbuilding major, announced recently it is pairing with Oregon-based Vigor Marine to modernise repair yards and expand naval MRO capacity on the US west coast.
