Philly Shipyard is looking into a partnership with HD Hyundai Heavy Industries as the US Navy looks east to boost its shipbuilding capacity.
In April, the Oslo-listed, Kjell Inge Rokke-backed yard agreed to explore a potential partnership with the South Korean giant on “US government shipbuilding projects as well as maintenance, repair and overhaul projects”, it said in its first-quarter results.
The agreement came a month after US Navy secretary Carlos Del Toro toured HHI, Hanwha Ocean in South Korea and Mitsubishi facilities in Japan, encouraging the builders to invest in US subsidiaries that could resuscitate shuttered yards in the US.
In a statement, the navy said South Korean shipbuilding was an asset to the US as China “continues to aggressively pursue worldwide shipbuilding dominance”.
Philly Shipyard and HHI previously had an agreement running from 2005 through to 2018, where HHI provided design and procurement support on the construction of 22 product tankers.
The partnership also follows reports late last year that Philly Shipyard was the subject of a takeover bid from Hanwha Ocean.
The company declined to comment on the rumours.
For the first three months of 2024, Philly Shipyard lost $8.5m, down from $18.3m for the same period last year on the back of $118m in revenue, up from $114m.
The company in part attributed the ongoing losses to labour issues, with various factors impacting its ability to scale up its workforce to meet its $1.6bn backlog.
Orders include training vessels for five of US state-run maritime academies, a subsea rock installation vessel and three container ships.
