Hanjin Raises Philippine Investment

South Korea's Hanjin Heavy Industries will pour an additional $684m into its shipbuilding yard in the Philippines, on top of the $1b it initially earmarked for investment, Reuters reported. The entire investmen would be completed by 2011. The company is working on details of a second phase of investment, Armand Arreza, administrator of the Subic Bay freeport zone. By the end of this year, the Korean company would have invested $977m to build part of the first phase of its shipyard. Another $501m will be spent next year.

Capacity constraints in Korea have forced Hanjin to look overseas for expansion. It started work in May 2006 on its Philippine facility, which has so far received orders for 28 container vessels, 3 bulk carriers and 2 oil tankers. As of the end of 2006, the Hanjin group had racked up $1.7 billion worth of orders. In May, the group won shipbuilding orders worth a total of $2.2 billion from companies in Germany, France, Turkey and India. The rise in Hanjin's ship orders were mainly driven by the growth in global trade, Arreza said. Source: Reuters