South Korea’s largest shipbuilding group, HD Hyundai, is accelerating its global expansion to enhance its global competitiveness and consolidate its market position.
HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (HD KSOE), the intermediate holding company for HD Hyundai Group’s shipbuilding business, announced that it has reached an agreement with Doosan Enerbility, a subsidiary of South Korea’s Doosan Group, to acquire Doosan Vina, Doosan Enerbility’s Vietnamese subsidiary, for 290 billion won (approximately US$208 million). In recent years, Doosan Enerbility has been working to restructure its overseas operations to reduce debt and focus more on power generation.
According to records, Doosan Vina was established in 2006 and covers an area of 110 hectares. It mainly produces boilers, process equipment, port cranes, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant modules.
Under the agreement, HD KSOE will retain Doosan Vina’s existing business foundation and plans to transform the company into an independent cargo hold and port crane manufacturing base in Asia.
This acquisition means that HD KSOE will further deepen its industrial layout in Southeast Asia.
HD KSOE has a long history of shipbuilding in Vietnam. In 1996, its shipbuilding subsidiary HD Hyundai Mipo established a joint venture shipyard with Vietnam National Shipping Lines called HD Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding. This was the first overseas expansion of the Korean shipbuilding industry and its most successful case.
The shipyard covers an area of about 992,000 square meters, owns a 400,000-ton slipway and a 100,000-ton slipway with the largest 700-ton gantry crane and a quay shoreline length of 1.4 kilometers. HD Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding was initially engaged in the business of ship repairing and retrofitting, then entered into the newbuilding business after 2008, and exited the ship repairing business after 2011 and completely shifted to the newbuilding business. Currently, it primarily constructs bulk carriers and oil tankers with deadweights ranging from 50,000 to 80,000 tons, having accumulated over 200 vessels built to date.
Southeast Asia has become a competitive region for South Korean shipbuilders, relying on low-cost production capacity to maintain their competitiveness. To ensure shipbuilding capacity in Southeast Asia, HD Hyundai has confirmed that it will commence shipbuilding operations at its Subic Shipyard in the Philippines in the fourth quarter of 2025. The renovated and upgraded Subic Shipyard will have an annual production capacity of 10 vessels.
HD Hyundai Heavy Industries stated that the Subic Shipyard will primarily construct oil tankers and offshore wind power structures. It plans to assign the construction of up to eight 115,000 DWT LR2 product tankers ordered by Cido Shipping (four vessels) and Nissin Shipping (two plus two vessels) to the Subic Shipyard, with delivery expected in 2027 and 2028. The construction period for each vessel is estimated to be 16 to 18 months.