Secretary of the Navy Del Toro recently met with top South Korean shipbuilding executives during a trip to the country, lobbying them to invest in dual-use commercial-military shipyards in the United States.
During the trip he met separately with top executives from Hanwha Ocean
and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries on Feb. 25 and 27, touring Hyundai’s shipyard in Ulsan and Hanwha’s shipyard on Geoje Island.
Del Toro emphasizes the discussions were productive and focused on trying to attract Korean investment into dual use commercial and naval shipbuilding in the U.S.
“In each of these engagements, I brought to the table a simple, yet profound opportunity: invest in America. I was enormously gratified by the strong interest expressed by the leaders of each of these world-class shipbuilders in establishing U.S. subsidiaries and investing in shipyards in the United States,” he said in a statement.
These discussions were in line with Del Toro’s call for a new Maritime Statecraft from a September speech at the Harvard Kennedy School that sought to “build comprehensive U.S. and allied maritime power, both commercial and naval” (Defense Daily, Sept. 29, 2023).
That speech specifically cited the possibility of South Korean and Japanese shipbuilders partnering with U.S. firms to increase U.S.-based commercial and naval shipbuilding.
Del Toro said his visits in the past week reinforced his vision.
“As I saw firsthand during my shipyard visits in Korea this week, Hanwha and Hyundai set the global industry standard. I could not be more excited at the prospect of these companies bringing their expertise, their technology, and their cutting-edge best practices to American shores. As world class leaders in the global shipbuilding business, they are poised to energize the U.S. shipbuilding marketplace with fresh competition, renowned innovation and unrivaled industrial capacity.”
He reiterated that the U.S. still has several former shipyard sites that are “largely intact and dormant. These are ripe for redevelopment as dual-use construction facilities for both warships, like Aegis destroyers, as well as high value chain commercial vessels, such as the ammonia gas carriers that will enable the global transition from fossil fuels to green energy sources like hydrogen.”
In October, Del Toro toured the historic Mare Island Naval Shipyard, with only a portion of the land currently used by Mare Island Dry Dock for dry docking and pier-side vessel repair, maintenance and alterations services. The company currently only uses two of the former yard’s dry docks (Defense Daily, Oct. 5, 2023).
At the time the Navy said the secretary’s staff had also inspected the Richmond Shipyard that is now part of the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front Historical Park, which has six graving docks, a large railhead and modular assembly area.
Del Toro said he expects to host Hanwha Vice Chairman and CEO Dong Kwan Kim and HD Hyundai Vice Chairman and CEO Kisun Chung in his Pentagon office “in the coming weeks.”
A brief LinkedIn post by HD Hyundai commented that “We would become a shipbuilder that contributes not only to the development of the RoK Navy and the Philippine Navy, but also to the advancement of the U.S. Navy fleet.”