U.S. Wall Street Journal Spotlights Hanwha Ocean as Partner in Trump Administration’s Manufacturing Revival

[Financial News] The U.S.-based Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has published an article identifying Hanwha Ocean as a key partner in U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to revive U.S. manufacturing and highlighting the company’s investments and business activities.
In a report on the 25th (local time), the WSJ described South Korea and Hanwha as leading outside players driving the revival of U.S. shipbuilding. Senator Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), who is working with the Trump administration to advance the plan, told the WSJ that the United States had lost its shipbuilding capacity in a generation and that shock therapy was needed to get it back on track. “The world won’t wait for us to get there,” he said, emphasizing that “we need to move faster.”
The WSJ noted that the United States currently accounts for less than 1% of global shipbuilding, while China, the world’s largest shipbuilding nation, has more than 230 times the U.S. shipbuilding capacity. The Trump administration earlier unveiled a plan to expand U.S. shipbuilding capacity and usher in a “maritime golden age.”
The WSJ reported that after Hanwha acquired Philly Shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in December 2024, it invested about $350 million in facility upgrades and plans to invest several billion dollars more. The South Korean government also pledged $150 billion in investment last year to improve U.S. shipbuilding as part of the U.S.-Korea trade agreement.
Last March, Hanwha joined the U.S. Navy’s next-generation logistics support ship program as a subcontractor, and early this month it was named as a builder of specialized auxiliary vessels related to Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense system. Philly Shipyard is already capable of building naval auxiliary vessels and aims to secure certification for a facility capable of building combat ships by 2028.
The WSJ said Hanwha is facing challenges at Philly Shipyard, including high production costs, a shortage of suppliers and limited yard space. The outlet noted that Hanwha is the only foreign company to have acquired a U.S. shipyard in recent years, and said shipbuilding allies such as South Korea and Japan need certainty about future demand from the Department of Defense if they are to expand their U.S. presence. The WSJ said Congress is not currently taking up the defense budget bill, making it difficult to gauge the Defense Department’s long-term procurement needs, and claimed that this uncertainty is an obstacle to expanding investment.
Meanwhile, Hanwha made an offer of more than $1 billion last August to acquire Austal USA’s shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, and is currently in negotiations. Alex Nelson Wong, Hanwha Group’s chief strategy officer (CSO), said the goal now is to win more orders from the U.S. Department of Defense, adding, “The next step is to have commercial and naval shipyards side by side.”
[email protected] Park Jong-won Reporter