Hanjin manpower to reach 22,000

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — The benefits of local employment will be felt more this year at the Korean shipbuilding facility in this free port, as Hanjin Heavy Industries Corp.-Philippines (HHIC-Phils.) is expected to increase its workforce to 22,000 from the current 16,600.

Taek Kyun Yoo, general manager for external business of Hanjin Heavy Industries Corp.-Philippines (HHIC-Phils.), said the Korean shipbuilding giant will create more jobs at its Redondo Peninsula shipyard after signing in more new building projects in the first half of 2010.

“Hanjin has contracted the construction of 20 more vessels worth about $1.2 billion in the first half of this year,” Yoo informed Zambales Governor Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. in a recent briefing at Hanjin’s headquarters, here.

Because of this, the Hanjin official said, the firm’s order book has increased to a total of 56 vessels worth about $4.9 billion.

Consequently, the new orders would increase Hanjin’s manpower requirements from 16,000 in 2008 to 22,000 by the end of 2010, and up to 24,000 in 2011 and 25,000 in 2012, Yoo also told Ebdane.

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Administrator Armand Arreza, Hanjin has remained Subic’s top exporter since last year by posting freight on board (FOB) value totaling $372.74 million in the first half of this year.

“We expect Hanjin to remain as the Subic free port's top exporter for the next few years, and to fuel the growth of Subic’s maritime industry,” he said earlier in a statement.

Arreza also said that the SBMA expects Subic’s export FOB value to grow in the coming months, as Hanjin and other free port enterprises roll out more products due to brightening prospects in global trade.

For his part, Ebdane said the increasing job generation at the Hanjin shipyard “augurs well for the development of the Zambales province, and to local efforts to strengthen the economic empowerment of Zambaleños.”

Expressing thanks to Hanjin, as well as to the SBMA, for providing more local employment opportunities, Ebdane said the provincial government “would help out in the selection of qualified shipyard workers” through its Public Employment Services Office.

Yoo also said that since 2007, Hanjin has helped train some 22,000 workers at its skills training center in the Subic Bay Freeport.

The trained workers included welders, painters, pipe fitters, electricians, machinists, and outfitters, who were mostly hired later at the Hanjin shipyard.

He added that the Korean shipbuilder, which has invested a total of $1.9 billion in its Subic shipyard, had so far manufactured 14 vessels worth $850 million since 2008 when it delivered its first vessel, the MV Argolikos, to a Greek shipping company. By JONAS REYES - Manila Bulletin