Amid a situation in which Korean shipbuilders are closely chased by Chinese rivals, Hanjin Heavy Industries is trying hard to retain its leadership by reviving the shipyard in Subic Bay, the Philippines. Since running at full capacity in 2009, the Subic Shipyard has won orders continuously, surpassing the US$1-billion sales revenue for the first time in its history last year. Its operating profit is also solidly in the black for five consecutive years.
A Hanjin Heavy Industries official said on January 4, "Although the figures are not compiled yet, the 2014 sales revenue of the Subic Shipyard is estimated at more than $1 billion. Following 2013, last year will witness a positive profit of about 30 billion won."
Located 110 kilometers northwest of Manila, the shipyard is 11 times larger than that for Hanjin's Yeongdo dockyard. Ahn Jin-gyu, Hanjin Heavy Industries Corp. Philippines head, said, "We can build 10,000-TEU containers at Subic, which is unimaginable in Yeongdo. Thanks to this large capacity, we have been able to sign deals to build five 11,000-TEU containerships."
The shipyard will soon build a very large crude carrier as large as 300,000 tons. Mr. Ahn added, "We have an order backlog of 39 ships, equivalent to three years of work, at the shipyard. We will hire 2,000 additional workers this year." Currently the shipyard employs 25,000 local workers.
Source: The Korea Economic Daily
