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HAVING
received many orders for new vessels from around the
world, a South Korean shipbuilder said it will expand
its Philippine facilities, which will soon make it the
world’s fourth-largest shipyard.
Hanjin
Heavy Industries and Construction Co., which has yet to
complete its expansion in Subic Bay, said that its move
to boost domestic capacity is expected to cost an
additional $684 million. The figure excludes the P1
billion the company intends to spend for its shipyard in
the former
US
naval base. Announced early last year, the investment is
the Philippines’ single biggest foreign investment in
fixed assets in 2006.
“The
expansion was made in response to the increasing number
of vessels being ordered from the company, which
currently stands at 33 container vessels,” the Subic Bay
Metropolitan Authority said in a statement last
Thursday.
Once
expansion is complete, the 3,000-strong facility is
expected to hire an additional 13,000 workers next year
and nearly 16,000 by 2011.
To cope
with its huge skilled labor requirements, the South
Korean company maintains a training center in
Subic which
churns out 1,200 trainees per batch every three months.
Recently, Hanjin began the fabrication of its first
container vessel, costing some $70 million, in the local
shipyard. Besides being scheduled to deliver 33
medium-sized container vessels worth almost $3 billion
in the next two years, Hanjin is also expected to build
82 similar vessels from 2009 to 2011.
“Included in Hanjin’s production pipeline is the
fabrication of a multimillion-dollar vessel, which would
be the biggest ship in the world. This, plus company’s
production and export projections, will significantly
increase their manpower requirements and export
revenues,” SBMA administrator Armand Arreza said in a
statement.
Last
month, the company said it secured the $2.2-billion
order for the biggest container carriers which will also
be manufactured locally.
It also
signed German, French, Indian, and Turkish shipowners
for eight post-panamax container carriers and other
building projects. |
