Hanwha Ocean to establish additional engineering center in Busan, invest 13.6 billion won

[Financial News] Hanwha Ocean Co., Ltd. will invest at least 13.6 billion won in Busan to establish an additional engineering center. The company plans to expand its design and R&D capabilities in shipbuilding and marine sectors and hire local specialists, with the aim of developing Busan into a key technology hub.
Busan City said it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Hanwha Ocean on the afternoon of the 21st in the video conference room at City Hall to establish an additional “Busan Engineering Center.”
Mayor Jeon Jae-soo and Hanwha Ocean President Jeong In-seop, among others, attended the signing ceremony that day, discussed investment cooperation plans and signed the memorandum of understanding.
Under the agreement, Hanwha Ocean plans to build an additional engineering center of about 8,926 square meters (2,700 pyeong) in Bujeon-dong, Busanjin-gu, and hire new specialists in design and R&D for merchant ships and offshore plants by 2028.
This investment was pursued based on the results of the engineering center Hanwha Ocean established in Jung-gu, Busan, in 2025 and currently operates. The company found, through operating the existing center, that Busan has skilled technical professionals and the potential to provide a stable talent pool. It was reported to have decided on that basis to expand its design and R&D functions in the region.
The city expects the new center to strengthen the competitiveness of the regional shipbuilding and marine industries, while also creating an opportunity to attract to the region highly skilled R&D personnel and companies’ core technology functions that had been concentrated in the capital region.
In particular, it expects the center to help expand technological cooperation with local companies and research institutions in shipbuilding and marine industries, build an industrial ecosystem for the green and digital transitions, and broaden the foundation for growth in high-value-added knowledge-service industries that research and design future ship technologies.
The center is also expected to have a positive impact on local talent finding jobs and settling in the region. The city says that more specialized jobs in design and R&D would broaden young people’s employment options and could help create a virtuous cycle in which talent trained at local universities finds work at local companies and settles in the region.
The city plans to use this investment as an opportunity to broaden its efforts to attract investment beyond the shipbuilding and marine industries to related knowledge-service industries and emerging industries of the future.
“This investment by Hanwha Ocean will strengthen Busan’s shipbuilding and marine industry base and greatly help create a virtuous cycle in which local young people and talent can work and grow in Busan,” Busan Mayor Jeon Jae-soo said.

[email protected] Kwon Byeong-seok Reporter