Hanwha Ocean (042660.KS) secured shipbuilding orders worth about 2.9 trillion won ($2.1 billion) in September alone. Riding a steady stream of orders, the company is expanding into future offshore businesses and accelerating its push into the global maritime market.
Hanwha Ocean disclosed on the 28th an order for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier worth 680 billion won. With that deal, the company's shipbuilding contracts for September totaled 2.8918 trillion won. The orders span a range of vessel types, including six large eco-friendly container ships from Yang Ming Marine Transport, a leading Taiwanese shipping line, as well as very large gas carriers (VLGCs), very large crude carriers (VLCCs) and LNG carriers.
Hanwha Ocean attributes the results to a selective order strategy centered on profitability. The company says the orders demonstrate its technological competitiveness in eco-friendly fuel propulsion and high-efficiency vessels, in step with the global shipping industry's push to cut carbon emissions. With more than three years of work in hand, Hanwha Ocean can further improve production efficiency.
On the 9th, Hanwha Ocean was also named the preferred bidder for the Royal Thai Navy's next-generation frigate program. The selection demonstrated the company's naval shipbuilding capabilities and project execution competitiveness in an overseas defense market with high barriers to entry. Trust built through Thailand's operating experience with the first frigate, which Hanwha Ocean delivered successfully, is seen as having led to the latest selection. If a final contract is signed after detailed negotiations, it will add 683.3 billion won in orders.
Securities analysts are watching Hanwha Ocean's recent order momentum and the potential for further business expansion. Beyond short-term order wins, they say medium- and long-term opportunities could continue in LNG carriers, submarines and the U.S. market. NH Investment & Securities said on the 22nd that Hanwha Ocean's medium- to long-term pipeline for LNG carrier and submarine orders remains intact, and that new order opportunities in naval shipbuilding and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) would expand from next year, centered on the U.S. market.
In the offshore segment, Hanwha Ocean is pursuing floating data centers (FDCs) as a future business, building data centers at sea as global demand for data centers surges with the spread of artificial intelligence. The company has obtained approval in concept from the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) for a 60-megawatt FDC model it developed in-house. Hanwha Ocean is preparing to commercialize the business, drawing on design and construction capabilities accumulated in shipbuilding and offshore engineering.
As a result, Hanwha Ocean's business structure is expanding toward securing a stable order backlog based on eco-friendly, high-value-added commercial vessels while growing overseas naval exports and U.S. operations and preparing future offshore businesses such as FDCs. With future offshore projects added to existing commercial shipbuilding and defense operations, its medium- to long-term business portfolio is expected to become more diversified.
An official in the shipbuilding industry said that if Hanwha Ocean expands business opportunities in LNG carriers, overseas naval vessels and the U.S. market while broadening into future offshore areas such as FDCs, its medium- to long-term growth base will be further strengthened.
