Korea’s three major shipbuilders are expanding partnerships with U.S. companies as they pursue opportunities under U.S. President Donald Trump’s Make American Shipbuilding Great Again initiative (MASGA).

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hanwha Ocean and Samsung Heavy Industries signed a series of agreements and contracts with U.S. companies and institutions at the Korea-U.S. Shipbuilding Partnership Center’s opening ceremony in Washington on Thursday.

The center is aimed at expanding bilateral cooperation in ship design, production, work force training and smart shipyard development while helping Korean shipbuilders strengthen their presence in the U.S. market.

While the United States works to rebuild its shipbuilding industry, Korean shipbuilders are also looking to expand their U.S. production bases and technology partnerships.

Hanwha Ocean made the most extensive moves. The company signed a professional services contract with Leidos Gibbs & Cox, a leading designer of U.S. Navy vessels, to jointly design a Global Fast Sealift vessel. The agreement expands cooperation between the companies from a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed in April to strengthen naval shipbuilding capabilities to the joint design stage.

The two companies will design the vessel together and develop related technologies. They plan to combine Hanwha Ocean’s shipbuilding capabilities with the expertise of Leidos Gibbs & Cox, which has designed more than 70 percent of the U.S. Navy’s surface ships, with an eye on both the U.S. and broader global markets. The vessel will be designed to operate commercially in peacetime and transport military supplies in emergencies.

Hanwha Ocean also signed separate MOUs with Delaware County Community College in Pennsylvania on shipbuilding technology education and work force development and with the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia on supply chain cooperation.

The partnerships are intended to secure local workers and suppliers around Hanwha Philly Shipyard, the company’s U.S. shipbuilding base.

“We will expand cooperation in the areas the United States needs most, centering on a local production base,” said Jung In-sub, president and head of Hanwha Ocean’s Management Support Office.

HD Hyundai moved to strengthen its partnership in the smart shipyard sector. HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, the intermediate holding company overseeing HD Hyundai’s shipbuilding operations, signed a final contract with Siemens Digital Industries Software to introduce a next-generation marine platform on Thursday.

The project will use AI and other digital technologies to connect the entire shipyard process, from vessel design and production to supply chain management and maintenance. The two companies plan to test design changes and production processes in a virtual shipyard that replicates actual operating conditions. Information generated through the system will then be transmitted to production sites in real time to improve efficiency and quality.

Similarly, Samsung Heavy Industries also expanded its cooperation with U.S. companies. The shipbuilder received approval in principle from the American Bureau of Shipping for the basic design of a liquefied natural gas bunkering vessel with a capacity of 12,000 cubic meters (424,000 cubic feet) that it is jointly developing with Conrad Shipyard. The certification marks the first tangible design result since the companies established their partnership in December 2025.

Samsung Heavy Industries will also conduct joint research on autonomous navigation technology with Saronic Technologies, a developer of autonomous surface vessels. The company additionally agreed to establish a training center for shipbuilding workers with Vigor Marine Group, which specializes in ship maintenance, repair and overhaul.
The agreements extend Samsung Heavy Industries’ U.S. partnerships across ship design, future maritime technology and work force development.

Source: Korea JoongAng Daily