Hanjin investing $2 billion for northern Mindanao shipyard

REPORT FROM BUSINESSWORLD KOREAN FIRM Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Corp. is set to invest $2 billion for the construction of a shipyard complex in Mindanao. A statement released by the Office of the Press Secretary on Monday said the commitment was made by Hanjin President Jeong Sup Shim during his courtesy call on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Malacañang. Mr. Jeong said the new investment is expected to employ around 30,000 people, mostly engineers, welders, and steel fabricators. Philippine Veterans Investment Development Corp. (Phividec) Administrator Ninfa Albania, who was present during the courtesy call, said in the same statement that the shipping facility would be established at the 3,000-hectare Phividec Industrial Estate in Tagoloan and Villanueva towns in Misamis Oriental. Mr. Jeong told Mrs. Arroyo that the construction of the general manufacturing plant of the shipbuilding facility would start early next year. He added that the plant would start creating ships in 2010, and would export around $1.7 billion worth of shipbuilding parts and vessels by 2012. Hanjin was established in 1937 at Youngdo, Pusan and claims to be the first shipbuilding company in Korea. In 1968, it built the first steel-framed building in Korea. The construction firm started to penetrate the country in 1973 when it invested on the construction of the Iligan-Butuan Road. Last year, it signed an agreement with the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority for the 50-year lease of around 230 hectares of land in the Subic Bay Freeport, where it is building and operating a $1-billion shipbuilding facility. In June, the shipping firm said it would invest an additional $684 million or roughly P32 billion in its shipyard to address the increasing number of vessels being ordered from the company. It is expected to deliver 33 medium-sized container vessels worth almost $3 billion in the next two years, and build 82 large-sized ones from 2009 to 2011. — Alexis Douglas B. Romero/BusinessWorld