Korean shipbuilders are expanding shipbuilding workforce training projects in the United States. During the process of promoting the MASGA (Make American Shipbuilding Great Again) project, they confirmed that the United States most wants "shipyard infrastructure expansion" along with "training of specialized shipbuilding personnel." They plan to seek business opportunities while making investments that meet U.S. demands.
According to the shipbuilding industry on the 28th, major Korean shipbuilders, including Samsung Heavy Industries, recently submitted business proposals to the U.S. Department of Commerce for the MASGA (Make American Shipbuilding Great Again) project.
The proposals are reportedly in the form of opinion papers outlining each company's strengths and the support they seek from the U.S. government. This was done at the request of Alex Krutz, deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Commerce, who recently visited four Korean shipbuilders (HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hanwha Ocean, Samsung Heavy Industries, HJ Shipbuilding & Construction). It is a procedure to exchange views and confirm demand.
According to the shipbuilding industry, what the United States most wants from Korean shipbuilders is investment in shipyard infrastructure and the training of specialized shipbuilding personnel. The United States lacks shipbuilding capacity to the extent that only 10 ships are built per year at its domestic shipyards.
An industry official said, "The United States currently has virtually no shipbuilding capability, so it is focusing on workforce training," and added, "It is difficult even to procure materials, so it also wants overall infrastructure development." Among these, officials view the training of skilled workers as what can progress relatively quickly.
Corporations are also drawing up plans to meet U.S. demands. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, which has been partnering with the University of Michigan since July last year to nurture shipbuilding talent, plans to establish a local shipbuilding workforce training center in the first half of next year to strengthen local residents' engineering capabilities.
Samsung Heavy Industries, which signed a strategic partnership in Aug. with Vigan Marine, a U.S. Navy MRO shipbuilder, is reviewing the establishment of a training center to develop skilled shipbuilding workers somewhere in the United States, including the four states where Vigan Marine is located—Reagan, Washington, California and Virginia.
Hanwha Ocean, which dispatched 70 to 80 Korean personnel to the Philly Shipyard at the end of last year to transfer process and operations know-how, is pushing for rotational assignments in Korea for Philly Shipyard workers. It is also carrying out facility investments at the Philly Shipyard as desired by the United States. It is investing $5 billion (about 7.37 trillion won) to modernize facilities and is also pursuing facility upgrades to enable warship construction.
An industry official said, "Of the roughly 70,000 production workers in Korea's shipbuilding industry, 60% to 70% are foreigners, and it took a tremendous amount of time and money to bring them in and train them," adding, "The United States has no choice but to go through the same process."
An official at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said, "Although the pace is not fast, we are considering various options, including dispatching domestic personnel to the site to train local workers."