THE Philippines’ largest shipyard operator Hanjin Heavy Industries-Philippines (HHIP) has reserved an additional 150 hectares of land in Subic for a $1-billion expansion program designed in anticipation of the Malampaya exploration project and to accommodate additional newbuilding orders.
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority administrator Armand Arreza said HHIP’s Cagayan de Oro plant (southern Philippines) is on hold and that the company will instead focus on its Subic yard while waiting for results of its engineering, procurement and construction bid for phase 2 of the Malampaya natural gas project.
“Even before the Malampaya II project, HHIP already expressed their intention to expand their yard in Subic,” Arreza, whose term as SBMA administrator expires on September 19, said.
“However, with the Malampaya project, we now expect that the expansion would be accelerated and result in big investments for SBMA. HHIP is also looking at setting up all other support industries for the platform project to be housed in Subic.”
Under the expansion plan, 100 hectares—falling under the shipyard development’s Phase 1-2 —will be dedicated for dry-dock 6 while the remaining 50 hectares will be for fabrication of materials for the Malampaya platform.
From now until 2015, HHIP has 31 newbuildings for delivery. At the end of the month, it will deliver its 24th ship, bulk carrier MV Houheng II to Heugh Industries of Hong Kong. On September 10, the company will also deliver its 25th ship to an undisclosed company.
