HHI to build another yard in Kunsan

Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) announced that it will construct its No.2 shipyard in Kunsan city, Chollabuk-do. The new shipyard will be equipped with a newbuilding dock and an outfitting basin at a cost of 407.2 billion won and is scheduled to go into operation by January 2010. Details of the project such as facilities and equipment are yet to be released, but local newspapers report that HHI plans to build a yard capable of building about 20 units of 180,000 dwt class vessels per year with the volume of processed steel estimated at 400,000 tonnes. It envisages chalking up 2 trillion won in annual sales.

Report claim that the new yard will have a dry-dock 380 meters long overall and a 1,600-ton gantry crane on a site of about 2.33 million sq.m. In addition, it will be equipped with a barge for launching. Construction work on the new yard is scheduled to begin this year and completed during 2009 at the earliest.

In September 2007, HHI acquired a total of 1.5 million sq.m of land in Kunsan city and decided to build a block-fabricating factory. In parallel with this, HHI is now giving technical and other training to about 500 workers newly hired locally. The new shipyard being planned for Kunsan will be built separately from this block factory and it would appear that HHI has always had ambitions to develop Kunsan into its No.2 production center in the long run.

HHI is also building a 10th dry-dock at its vast Ulsan facilities scheduled for completion in 2009. The shipbuilder constructs in excess of 5 million-grt worth of new ships a year with annual sales totaling 80 trillion won as of 2006, making it the world’s No.1 both in newbuilding volume and annual revenue.