Hanjin builds shipyard in Mindanao

Korean shipbuilder Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Co. has signed a deal to build a $2 billion shipbuilding complex with the Phividec Industrial Authority, the state-run agency tasked to develop industrial sites.

The facility will be the largest in the Philippines, even bigger than Hanjin?s $1 billion shipyard complex in Subic, and will employ 20,000 people. Hanjin general manager Jeong Sup Shim said his group decided to build the facility after the Philippine government declared the 441.8 hectare project site an economic zone. That site is part of a 3,000 hectare industrial estate being managed by Phividec. “The proclamation of the area as an ecozone will allow Hanjin to avail itself of incentives of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, such as duty-free importation of capital equipment and income tax holidays, among others,” Jeong said.

Jeong said Hanjin would spend at least P4.6 billion a year to pay the employees of the shipbuilding complex, which will produce pipes and light bridges with a maximum capacity of 80,000 tonnes a year starting next year, when the first phase is completed. The facility?s capacity will increase to a maximum of 830,000 tonnes in the next 15 years, when it starts producing cargo and container ships.