According to industry sources on March 16, Hanwha Ocean resolved at its board meeting late last year to establish a new Singapore subsidiary for its Offshore Business Unit (OBU) and a domestic Wind Turbine Installation Vessel (WTIV) operating business subsidiary, and it has been confirmed that both entities have recently completed their establishment. Hanwha Ocean is expected to accelerate its domestic and overseas offshore business in earnest using these subsidiaries as bases. A company official stated, “The domestic WTIV operating business subsidiary is intended to preemptively secure a position in the domestic offshore wind market, which is expected to see full-scale growth, and the Singapore subsidiary will serve as an execution-focused organization for carrying out global projects.”

Hanwha Ocean’s offshore business division handles offshore facilities such as Floating Production Storage and Offloading units (FPSO) and Wind Turbine Installation Vessels (WTIV). As this division had been somewhat sluggish, it absorbed the Energy & Infrastructure (E&I) division, which handles onshore plants and wind farms, in November last year and was reorganized into the Energy Plant Unit (EPU). Against this backdrop, the company aims for a full-scale breakthrough this year through the establishment of related subsidiaries at home and abroad and changes in the external environment.

Hanwha Ocean’s moves appear set to generate synergy with the recently shifting favorable external environment. Currently, countries such as Brazil hold offshore plant ordering plans, and with rising oil prices due to recent heightened tensions in the Middle East, incentives for global oil majors to order offshore plants are expected to increase. An industry source explained, “In a high oil price environment, the economic viability of deepwater gas field and oil field development increases, meaning production translates into profits for global oil majors, which typically leads to increased demand for FPSOs and similar equipment.”

Additionally, the policy stance of the Donald Trump U.S. administration, which has championed a ‘fossil fuel revival,’ is also having a positive effect. Analysis suggests that with the lifting of the freeze on liquefied natural gas (LNG) export approvals and the expedited processing of new project permits in the U.S., large-scale offshore equipment orders necessary for gas field development will follow in succession.

In particular, Hanwha Ocean is expected to achieve tangible results through infrastructure it has already secured. At the core is Hanwha Offshore Singapore (formerly Dyna-Mac Holdings), a company specializing in offshore plant topside structures that was acquired in 2024. Through a multi-yard strategy where hulls are produced at the Geoje shipyard and topside structures are manufactured in Singapore for final assembly, the company is assessed to have secured both price competitiveness and production capacity simultaneously. For Hanwha Ocean, which anticipates expanded orders for offshore equipment projects, the Singapore facility is expected to serve as a highly utilized overseas base.

Domestically, the company has designated offshore wind as a future growth driver in line with the carbon neutrality trend. In the WTIV market for high-difficulty specialized vessels, the company delivered 2 WTIVs early to offshore wind specialist Cadeler last year, successfully delivering a total of 4 WTIVs—the most among domestic shipbuilders. Last month, it received an order for 1 WTIV worth 768.7 billion won from affiliate Ocean Wind Power 1, with delivery planned for the first half of 2028. The company is reviewing the deployment of this WTIV for the Shinan-ui offshore wind power generation project and other domestic offshore wind projects.

Hanwha Ocean’s strategy is not to stop at WTIV orders but to expand its business scope to include offshore wind development, operation, and sales. The company’s goal is to rapidly expand into the operations business this year, led by the ‘Shinan-ui Offshore Wind Project’ in Jeonnam. The Shinan-ui offshore wind project, for which Hanwha Ocean signed an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contract last year, involves constructing a 390-megawatt (MW) offshore wind farm in the waters southeast of Ui-do, Shinan-gun, Jeonnam, with a completion target of 2029. An industry source noted, “The establishment of the domestic WTIV subsidiary will facilitate WTIV vessel operations for projects such as the Shinan-ui offshore wind project.” Hanwha Ocean Expands Offshore Business with New Subsidiaries.

Source: BusinessKorea