South Korea’s oldest existing shipyard might relocate from its central Busan location. Founded in 1937, Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction’s Yeongdo shipyard, has an enviable central position in South Korea’s second city. Now going through a restructuring, speculation is growing Hanjin Heavy will cash in the site, and move to another Busan facility in the nearby district of Sinseondae.
Hanjin Heavy, which also has a huge shipyard in Subic Bay in the Philippines (pictured), has long been constrained at home by the cramped nature of its shipyard. When building 8,000 teu containerships, for example, Hanjin Heavy was forced to pioneer a novel method of stitching the ship together in two parts to overcome drydock size constraints.
