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SUBIC
BAY FREEPORT—After the M/V Argolikos, the first ship
ever to be made here by Hanjin Heavy Industries Corp.,
the Korean shipbuilder is set to build 35 more vessels
including eight post-Panamax carriers in the next three
years.
According to Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Chairman
Feliciano Salonga, Hanjin Heavy is set to deliver this
year another vessel to Dioryx Maritime Corp., the Greek
shipping firm that ordered the Argolikos. This time it
would be a ship with 43,000-twenty foot equivalent unit
(TEU) capacity.
Dioryx
is scheduled to buy four more vessels by the second
quarter of 2009, he said.
As of
February, Hanjin Heavy’s order book “shows that at least
36 ships, consisting of container vessels, tankers and
bulk carriers, are calendared for delivery between this
year and 2011,” Salonga added.
Salonga
made the announcement as Hanjin Heavy readies Argolikos
for its sea trial on May 27, or one year, one month and
one week after steel-cutting was done for the first
Subic-made vessel.
Pyeong
Jong Yu, manager of Hanjin Heavy’s Outside Business
Department, which also handles the company’s corporate
communications, said the firm had secured certifications
for Argolikos, including an attestation from Bureau
Veritas, a Paris-based conformity assessment,
certification and inspection and testing firm.
Yu said
the Argolikos already has a cargo ship safety equipment
certificate, a complete crew list and a certificate of
competency of the Korean crew from the Busan (Korea)
Regional Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Office.
The
delivery of Argolikos next month, however, meant only
more work for Hanjin Heavy, which has reportedly
received orders for 12 vessels of 4,300 TEUs even before
its groundbreaking here in May 2006.
In an
earlier statement, the company said it has signed a
$2.2-billion order for some of the biggest box ships and
Capesize carriers ever to be built. These include eight
12,800-TEU container carriers worth $1.27 billion for
Germany’s NSC Schiffartsgeselhaft; 10 carriers of 3,600
TEUs worth $690 million for France’s CMA CGM; and three
175,000-DWT (deadweight ton) Capsize bulkers worth $240
million, with two going to India’s Adani Group, and the
other to Turkey’s Eregli firm.
The
12,800-TEU carriers for NSC, each 365.6 meters in
length, 48.4 meters in breadth and 29.8 meters in depth,
would be among the biggest in the industry, Hanjin
added.
Hanjin
Heavy is successful in getting orders for large-sized
vessels because of its aggressive marketing strategies
and recognition by ship owners of the firm’s
shipbuilding technologies, as well as the capacity of
its Subic shipyard, company officials said.
The
firm, officials added, will undertake a second phase of
development for its Subic facilities in the second half
of 2008 that would enable the Philippine unit to compete
with Korea’s three other major shipbuilders—Hyundai
Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries and Daewoo
Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering.
The
expansion would involve the development of Dock No. 6,
which on blueprint was 480 meters long, 135 meters wide
and 13.5 meters deep. The construction of a bigger
assembly line and a 1.7-kilometer quay wall, and the
installation of two more units of ultra-huge gantry
cranes would also be part of the expansion and
development plans.
This
would increase Hanjin Heavy’s shipbuilding capacity in
Subic to 450,000 tons a year from 220,000 tons, and
enable it to build 33 vessels annually from today’s
capacity of 16 ships.
Hanjin
Heavy officials also said that with the
Subic expansion program, the company would not only “increase the
scale of production, but also diversify vessel types
from high-profit vessels to high-value, or ultra-large,
vessels.”
Hanjin,
which is investing $1.6 billion in its Subic shipyard,
was established in 1937 as the first shipbuilding
company in Korea. Starting with a 5,000-TEU container
ship in 1992, the company said it had since built the
“world’s best vessels” for 16 consecutive years.
Last
year, its Cosco New York, a 5,100-TEU Panamax container,
was voted as “ship of the year” by the world’s top three
shipping journals—The Marine Reporter, Marine Log and
Naval Architect—based on technology, design and
performance standards. |
