SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—Shipbuilding giant Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Co.-Philippines (HHIC-Phil) has cornered a contract to build in this free port some of the biggest ships in the world—three ultra-large container ships (ULCS) that can accommodate up to 20,600 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).
The order for three ultra-large containers was placed by French shipping firm CMA CGM, Hanjin said in a news statement released here on Monday.
CMA CGM, which is the third-largest container-shipping company in the world, has long been a customer of HHIC-Philippine, and bought its first Subic-made ship, the 4,300-TEU CMA CGM Turquoise, in September 2008.
Hanjin said each of the three new shipbuilding projects would measure 400 meters long, 59 meters wide and 33 meters deep.
“With a deck just as large as the area of four football fields, each of the three ULCS can load up to 20,600 TEU containers,” Hanjin said. That number of containers, when lined up, would stretch to 126 kilometers, or 36 kilometers longer than the 90-kilometer distance from Subic to Manila, it added.
HHIC-Phil President Jong Sup- shim said that so far, only two other shipbuilding nations had received orders for ULCS—Korea and Japan.
With the CMA CGM contract, Jong said that the Philippines is now poised to join that elite circle of major shipbuilders.
“Having successfully closed a deal with CMA CGM means that the competitiveness of our Subic shipyard is now widely acknowledged in the international business community,” Jong said.
“Consequently, this will boost the current global shipbuilding status of the Philippines even more, making the country a key player in the industry far and wide,” he added.
HHIC-Phil, which set up shop here in Subic in 2007, has cemented the Philippines’s claim to fame as an emerging shipbuilding center.
In recent years the company has successfully delivered 14 5,400-TEU container ships to overseas customers and has recently won contracts for six 11,000-TEU container ships to be delivered to various shipping companies in Europe and Asia from 2016 to 2017.
The new orders, Jong said, underscores the company’s world-class stature in the highly competitive shipbuilding market.
As of now, Jong said that Hanjin has focused on the rapid advancement of ULCSs, which cost less but are more profitable.
Jong said that because one of Hanjin’s drydocks here in Subic measures 550 meters long and 135 meters wide, the company can undertake construction of two of such ship at once.
The Hanjin official added that the firm’s continued success amid global uncertainties could be attributed largely to “our well-experienced and highly skilled Filipino manpower and the relentless pursuit of enhancing our ‘safety first’ culture.”
The Korean company now employs more than 27,000 Filipino workers that serve in various phases of shipbuilding here.
Image credits: Hanjin Photo