Hanjin make RP a shipyard mecca
Rey Enano, Manila Standard
Skeptics may not be easily convinced by this development but the shipbuilding sector is poised to become one of the major industries in the Philippines after Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Co. formally agreed last week to put up a $1 billion shipbuilding facility in Subic Freeport. Tsuneishi’s third slipway and Hanjin’s planned $1 billion investment, possibly in Subic’s Redondo Peninsula, will easily make the Philippines the world’s fourth biggest shipbuilder after Korea, Japan and China.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was ecstatic when Hanjin, South Korea’s fifth-largest shipbuilder, finally signed the deal with Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA). “The good news is that the agreement will result in 15,000 new jobs for workers here in Subic. We have been preparing for this investment for a long time,” she said.
The deal was facilitated when South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun followed up Hanjin’s request for the construction of a road along the proposed site when he went to Manila in December for a three-day state visit.
“This project has been delayed because Hanjin said it needs a road to be built along the site of the shipbuilding facility, so we released P150 million for this in exchange for the $1 billion investment,” Mrs. Arroyo said.
Malampaya site
Hanjin earlier looked over an area of 200 to 300 hectares at Redondo Peninsula where a concrete graving structure is already in place for the planned facility. Shell Exploration B.V. used the same area when it assembled the state-of-the-art production platform for the Malampaya natural gas field.
SBMA Chairman Feliciano Salonga, meanwhile, is thrilled with Hanjin’s plan, aware of the economic benefits of the project. Salonga knows well the industry. A marine engineering graduate of the US Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York in 1953, he worked for 10 years with then government-owned Philippine Shipyard and Engineering Corp. from 1984 up to 1994. Salonga is concurrently vice chairman of Bataan Shipyard and Engineering Co., another state-owned shipbuilding and shiprepair company.
Skeptics may not be easily convinced by this development but the shipbuilding sector is poised to become one of the major industries in the Philippines after Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Co. formally agreed last week to put up a $1 billion shipbuilding facility in Subic Freeport. Tsuneishi’s third slipway and Hanjin’s planned $1 billion investment, possibly in Subic’s Redondo Peninsula, will easily make the Philippines the world’s fourth biggest shipbuilder after Korea, Japan and China.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was ecstatic when Hanjin, South Korea’s fifth-largest shipbuilder, finally signed the deal with Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA). “The good news is that the agreement will result in 15,000 new jobs for workers here in Subic. We have been preparing for this investment for a long time,” she said.
The deal was facilitated when South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun followed up Hanjin’s request for the construction of a road along the proposed site when he went to Manila in December for a three-day state visit.
“This project has been delayed because Hanjin said it needs a road to be built along the site of the shipbuilding facility, so we released P150 million for this in exchange for the $1 billion investment,” Mrs. Arroyo said.
Malampaya site
Hanjin earlier looked over an area of 200 to 300 hectares at Redondo Peninsula where a concrete graving structure is already in place for the planned facility. Shell Exploration B.V. used the same area when it assembled the state-of-the-art production platform for the Malampaya natural gas field.
SBMA Chairman Feliciano Salonga, meanwhile, is thrilled with Hanjin’s plan, aware of the economic benefits of the project. Salonga knows well the industry. A marine engineering graduate of the US Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York in 1953, he worked for 10 years with then government-owned Philippine Shipyard and Engineering Corp. from 1984 up to 1994. Salonga is concurrently vice chairman of Bataan Shipyard and Engineering Co., another state-owned shipbuilding and shiprepair company.
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