SUBIC- KOREAN shipbuilder Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Co. is looking for another 400-hectare lot inside the Subic Bay Freeport to house its sub-contractors.
The lot will be the site for building portions of container vessels which will later be assembled at the firm’s main yard.
“Although the expected outlay (for the expansion) will be lower than its initial P1-billion investment, it will still be substantial amount,” Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) chair Feliciano Salonga told PortCalls.
SBMA is marketing Subic as a shipyard haven mainly for its deep natural draft and security from natural disasters aside from fiscal incentives available to locators. Salonga said Hanjin’s planned expansion will further boost the area’s appeal to other international shipyard operators such as the Association of Shipbuilders in Japan.
As of this writing, SBMA is fine-tuning the agreement on the lease of the 400-hectare lot, adjacent to Hanjin’s main yard along the Redondo Peninsula. The agreement is expected to be signed after Hanjin starts commercial operations on March 1.
But before it even opens its doors to business, the shipbuilder has already booked orders from a French company for 12 carriers each worth $60 million and with a capacity of 600 TEUs.
Hanjin formally signed the $1-billion lease agreement with the SBMA in March 2006 for the construction of a 2.3-million square meter shipyard at the Redondo Peninsula. Its Subic shipyard expands the company’s offshore plant construction, which has been restricted due to the relatively small size of its Youngdo shipyard in the port city of Busan (also known as Pusan), the largest harbor city in South Korea.
The Hanjin operations include production of liquefied natural gas carriers and other large ships as well as steel bridges, and are expected to generate up to 30,000 direct and indirect jobs. The current Freeport workforce is 61,584.
According to Salonga, the economy will also benefit from Hanjin’s operations, seen to infuse at least $1.6 billion in export values and workers’ income.
The shipbuilder has also opened a P40-million training center for Filipino shipyard workers. The facility has three classrooms, 70 welding booths, one pipefitting room, four painting rooms and a large working area that can accommodate up to 200 trainees and instructors.
About 100 Filipino welders were recently sent to Korea for an intensive training at Hanjin’s mother company. They will be taught the necessary skills to qualify them for shipbuilding jobs.
