South Korea’s three leading shipbuilders announced more detailed plans this month to cooperate with the Pentagon and revitalize American shipbuilding.
Representatives of South Korean industrial titans Hanwha, Samsung and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries shared new insights about their work with the U.S. Navy during Korea Investment Week, which took place in Seoul from Sept. 9 to 12. The effort has become known as MASGA, or “Make American Shipyards Great Again.”
Each company is planning major shifts in current shipyard operations, The Korea Economic Daily first reported.
As the U.S. seeks to expand its maritime power to keep pace with an increasingly aggressive China, South Korean manufacturers are stepping in to help kick-start the effort.
HD Hyundai made a major industrial win with the recent reopening of a dormant shipbuilding facility in Subic Bay in the Philippines. The previously shuttered shipyard was the subject of a fierce bidding war between Chinese and U.S. investors before it was acquired by a U.S. firm and revitalized with a South Korean investment. The strategically significant shipyard was inaugurated earlier this month.
At the recent forum in Seoul, Jang Gwang-pil, vice president of HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co., announced the new Subic Bay facility is being developed into an maintenance, repair and overhaul base for a variety of vessels, including frigates and patrol craft.
HD Hyundai’s recent merger of its shipbuilding operations will also see more U.S. Navy warships produced, Jang announced.
″There is a high possibility that HD Hyundai Heavy’s special ship division will work with HD Hyundai Mipo to build warships, including the Aegis destroyer,” he said.
Hanwha, which recently made history by acquiring Philly Shipyard, announced plans to create two hubs in Philadelphia and Busan, South Korea, to increase bilateral cooperation. Hanwha Philly Shipyard would function as a production center, while facilities in Busan would provide maintenance and repair services for U.S. naval vessels.
By basing production in Philadelphia, Hanwha aims to create U.S. jobs and train an American shipbuilding workforce.
At the same time, the company hopes that concentrating repair and maintenance for the U.S. Navy in Busan would also give a boost to businesses across South Gyeongsang Province in South Korea.
“By leveraging more than 1,000 suppliers in Busan and its surrounding area, we aim to create a specialized cluster capable of handling MRO for 11 U.S. Navy vessels annually,” Choi Jeong-hoon, head of special ship planning at Hanwha, told reporters.
The company performed a complete overhaul of a U.S. vessel, the USNS Wally Schirra, within six months — a record time, given the delays and maintenance difficulties that have long plagued the Navy.
Samsung Heavy Industries will expand work across five U.S. shipyards, following an agreement with U.S.-based Vigor Marine Group signed last month. The company announced that in addition to shipbuilding initiatives, it will also invest significantly in training American workers.
Zita Ballinger Fletcher previously served as editor of Military History Quarterly and Vietnam magazines and as the historian of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. She holds an M.A. with distinction in military history.
