On October 26, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, the shipbuilding subsidiary of South Korea’s largest shipbuilding group HD Hyundai, announced that it had signed an agreement with Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), the largest defense shipbuilder in the United States, in Gyeongju, South Korea.
The two companies will collaborate to build navy auxiliary ships for the U.S. Navy. The 2025 APEC Leaders’ Informal Meeting will also take place in the same location shortly thereafter.
Under the agreement, the two parties plan to combine HII’s accumulated shipbuilding expertise with HD Hyundai Heavy Industries’ design capabilities to jointly participate in the concept design phase bidding for the U.S. Navy’s recently announced Next Generation Logistics Ship (NGLS) project. They will also explore joint investment plans for establishing new shipyards or acquiring existing shipbuilding facilities in the United States.
In April this year, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and HII announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to combine their respective expertise and resources in shipbuilding. This collaboration aims to promote technological innovation, maximize production efficiency, reduce costs, shorten construction cycles, and explore expanding shipbuilding capacity in the United States.
In early October, executives and heads of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries’ Naval & Special Ship Business Division visited HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding facility in Mississippi to deepen cooperation between the two companies and support future shipbuilding plans.
In the U.S. Navy shipbuilding sector, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries secured a contract in mid-August this year for the scheduled maintenance of the 41,000-ton logistics ship USS Alan Shepard, assigned to the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet. The relevant maintenance work commenced in September.
South Korea has pledged to invest $150 billion in the U.S. shipbuilding sector. This investment forms part of the $350 billion investment fund agreed upon by both nations in July as part of their tariff deal, touted as a means to “revitalize the American shipbuilding industry”. However, the details of the broader tariff agreement reached between South Korea and the United States remain unresolved. While President Trump claims the deal is nearing finalization, South Korea indicates significant differences persist on key issues.
It is noteworthy that HII, which has signed a shipbuilding cooperation agreement with HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, has been placed on China’s export control management list: exports of dual-use items to HII are prohibited; all ongoing related export activities must be immediately halted; and in exceptional circumstances where exports are truly necessary, export operators must submit an application to the Ministry of Commerce.
HII is the largest defense shipbuilding company in the United States, owning Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) and Ingalls Shipbuilding (IS). IS primarily designs, builds, and maintains amphibious warfare ships, destroyers, and Coast Guard cutters for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard. NNS, with a history of over 135 years, builds surface combatants and amphibious warfare ships for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard cutters.