According to a Korean media report, the Nigerian government is actively seeking HD Hyundai Heavy Industries to invest in a local shipyard. Currently, Nigeria is aiming to become the center of the African offshore engineering equipment industry, and the country is attracting and encouraging investment by taking advantage of its abundant human resources as well as its ease of access to the African market. Ferdinand Nwonye said: “Nigeria is the largest market in Africa with an abundance of highly qualified people. Investing in a shipyard in Nigeria will facilitate access to the markets of East and West African countries, making it a win-win cooperation.”
In Nigeria, Samsung Heavy Industries, another South Korean shipbuilding giant, has entered into a joint venture with LADOL, a Nigerian deepwater logistics company, to establish a shipyard called SHI-MCI.
With an investment of $300 million, the shipyard is the only fabrication and integration facility in Africa with 121,000 m². It has state-of-the-art equipment and a dedicated quay for integrated assembly, which is 502 meters long and has a berthing depth of 12.5 meters, and thus it has the capacity to accommodate and carry out the fabrication, maintenance, refurbishment and conversion of very large and high value-added ships. Due to the shortage of ship repair facilities, SHI-MCI is also specializing in establishing a repair yard. Samsung Heavy Industries is considering further investment in SHI-MCI for the $2 billion Bonga floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) offshore project in Nigeria.
Currently, HD Hyundai is actively building overseas production bases. HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (HD KSOE), the intermediate holding company for HD Hyundai Group’s shipbuilding business, announced in mid-May that it has decided to lease part of the land and facilities at Hanjin Heavy Industries’ Subic Shipyard in the Philippines to expand its offshore wind power substructure fabrication and ship MRO business (Maintenance, Repair, Operations). HD KSOE will negotiate the detailed terms of the lease with the relevant parties to develop the Subic Shipyard into an offshore complex capable of fabricating offshore wind substructures, ship segment fabrication and ship repair by working with the Philippine government.
HD KSOE has committed to investing about $550 million over 10 years, initially focusing on offshore wind power. Marcos, the President of the Philippines, hopes that HD KSOE will be able to start shipbuilding operations at the Subic shipyard in the future, saying that the partnership will give the Philippines a “new beginning” and a “solid foundation” for the shipbuilding industry.
In addition to becoming the “new owner” of Hanjin Heavy Industries Subic Shipyard, HD Hyundai already owns one joint venture shipyard in Vietnam and one in Saudi Arabia, i.e., HD Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding, which was established by HD Hyundai Mipo and Vietnam National Shipping Company in 1996, and International Maritime Industries (IMI), which was established by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries in a joint venture with Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s National Shipping Company (Bahri) and the UAE’s Lamprell Company.
According to the report, HD Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding, which started its business in ship repair and conversion and gradually transitioned to newbuilding business in the late 2000s, is now focusing on Aframax tankers, with plans to build more complex ships in the future. The shipyard’s status as the largest shipyard in Southeast Asia plays a pivotal role in the entire Vietnamese shipbuilding industry.This is the first and most successful case of overseas expansion of the Korean shipbuilding industry.
Covering an area of nearly 12 million square meters, IMI Shipyard offers new build and repair services for VLCCS, bulk carriers, offshore vessels and drilling platforms, and is the largest shipyard in the Middle East and North Africa. In 2022, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries signed a technology transfer agreement with IMI to provide technical support and consulting services for IMI’s construction of ultra-large tankers.