HD Hyundai is strengthening its position in Vietnam across shipbuilding and equipment as Executive Chair Kisun Chung personally inspected the local site and pushed for field-centered management. The company is also accelerating its expansion toward a 2030 target of building 23 ships a year, backed by solid financial stability and a role in handling more than 80% of Vietnam’s total vessel deliveries.

According to Clarksons Research, a British shipbuilding and shipping market analysis firm, global vessel deliveries in 2025 totaled 76,816,830 gross tons. Vietnam accounted for 877,576 gross tons, or about 1.1% of the total. While the share is small, analysts say the figure is significant because it shows Vietnam has emerged as a production base ranking around seventh in the global shipbuilding market, where manufacturing is concentrated in East Asian countries.

In particular, HD Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding delivered 710,369 gross tons, accounting for about 80% of Vietnam’s total deliveries. The company is seen as maintaining its role as a key production hub in the global supply chain, based on its overwhelming share of Vietnam’s shipbuilding industry.

HVS’s performance is viewed as the result of a strategic relocation to a new base that matched changes in the business environment. Founded in 1975, HD Hyundai Mipo had long held the world’s No. 1 position in ship repair and conversion, but by the late 1990s it had hit a wall under low-price orders from China and Singapore. In response, Hyundai Mipo selected Ninh Phuoc in Khanh Hoa Province, Vietnam, as its new overseas base.

Ninh Phuoc is considered an ideal site for a shipyard because it offers vast land, limited typhoon risk, and favorable labor supply conditions. When Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding was established in 1999, it began as a repair-focused base, but the company gradually expanded its facilities as it shifted toward new shipbuilding.

The business transition was carried out in line with market conditions. From 2007, the company operated both repair and conversion work and newbuilding projects to build its production base, before fully shifting to a specialized newbuilding shipyard in 2011. After about three years of running both businesses in parallel and completing facility upgrades and supply chain development, HVS posted a profit three years after the transition, establishing a successful overseas model for South Korea’s shipbuilding industry.

Its financial results also show clear growth. HVS’s revenue rose every year, from $546.62 million in 2023 to $620.82 million in 2024 and $672.25 million in 2025. Operating profit increased from $12.65 million in 2023 to $20.23 million in 2025, expanding by about 60% over three years. The gains are attributed to more than just technology transfer. The company applied the same quality standards as its headquarters and trained local skilled workers directly through an in-house technical training center, improving process efficiency and cost competitiveness.

Based on these results, HD Hyundai is further elevating the status of its Vietnam base. It is now pushing to expand HVS’s annual maximum shipbuilding capacity from about 15 vessels to 23 by 2030. Beyond simple volume growth, the strategy is to diversify the vessel portfolio by adding eco-friendly ships and other types where it is relatively weaker against China, in addition to its core petrochemical product carriers, and complete a global division of labor with the South Korean headquarters.

Along with the shipyard expansion, the company is also moving to internalize its equipment supply chain. HDKSOE completed the acquisition of Doosan Enerbility’s Vietnam unit last year and officially launched HD Hyundai Eco Vina.

Top management’s site visits are also supporting the business expansion. In March, Chairman Kisun Chung visited the Vietnam operations and inspected HVS’s petrochemical product carrier construction site and Eco Vina’s tank fabrication facilities. He stressed, “The foundation of management is the field, and the answer to every problem is in the field.”
Source: Maeil Business(MK)