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Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Philippines, known as HHIC Phil, was established in February 2006 by
Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction HJ Shipbuilding & Construction Company, Ltd. (Korean: 주식회사 HJ중공업, Hanja: 株式會社HJ重工業), formerly Korea Shipbuilding & Engineering Corporation (Korean: 대한조선공사, Hanja: 大韓造船公社) and Hanjin Heavy Ind ...
of
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
. In the same month, the first ship building contract was signed for 4 container ships. In May 2006, the construction of a
shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...
began on
Redondo Peninsula The Redondo Peninsula is a short mountainous peninsula extending about 15 kilometers (9 miles) to the south of Zambales on western Luzon in the Philippines. It separates Subic Bay and the coasts around the Subic Bay Metropolitan Area of Subic an ...
- on the northern edge of
Subic Bay Subic Bay is a bay on the west coast of the island of Luzon in the Philippines, about northwest of Manila Bay. An extension of the South China Sea, its shores were formerly the site of a major United States Navy facility, U.S. Naval Base Subi ...
. The first vessel "Argolikos" was delivered in July 2008 for the Greek ship owner Dioryx. As of April 2011, the shipyard had delivered 20 ships. In 2013, the shipyard made its first oil tanker and in 2016, it delivered its first gas carrier. Additionally, the shipyard has also built parts of CALM buoys used for the
Malampaya The Malampaya gas field or the Malampaya-Camago field is a deepwater gas-condensate reservoir, located in the Service Contract 38 license area, located offshore, 65 km northwest of the island of Palawan, Philippines. Background The field ...
offshore project. The shipyard also has two large
drydock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...
s. In January 2019, the company filed for the biggest bankruptcy in the Philippines with unpaid loan obligations amounting to $412 million.


Background

As a part of its expansion process overseas, in 2004, Hanjin Heavy Industries Corporation started construction of a shipyard in Redondo peninsula, north of Subic bay,
Zambales Zambales, officially the Province of Zambales ( fil, Lalawigan ng Zambales; ilo, Probinsia ti Zambales; Pangasinan: ''Luyag/Probinsia na Zambales''; xsb, Probinsya nin Zambales), is a province in the Philippines located in the Central Luzon re ...
, Philippines. As per the HHIC website, this has resulted in the fourth-largest
shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...
in the world. As of September 2011, the shipyard employed 21,000
Filipino people Filipinos ( tl, Mga Pilipino) are the people who are citizens of or native to the Philippines. The majority of Filipinos today come from various Austronesian ethnolinguistic groups, all typically speaking either Filipino, English and/or other ...
. According to ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' on April 29, 2012: "On April 18, a subsidiary of Huntington Ingalls Industries, a United States defense contractor, announced a deal to work with Hanjin Heavy Industries, which maintains a shipbuilding and repair facility at the former base at Subic Bay. That opens the door to large-scale servicing of United States military ships there for the first time in almost 20 years." Huntington Ingalls said in a news release that the companies “will work together in providing maintenance, repair and logistics services to the U.S. Navy and other customers in the Western Pacific region.” HHIC Philippines' workforce was expected to increase to nearly 28,000 in 2016, however, a slump in shipbuilding projects had limited the workforce to 20,000 people as of 2017. As of September 2017, HHIC Phil is the largest shipyard in the Philippines and one of the largest private employers in the country.


Shipyard

The shipyard is located at the tip of the Redondo peninsula, in
sitio A ''sitio'' (Spanish for "site") in the Philippines is a territorial enclave that forms part of a barangay. Typically rural, a ''sitios location is usually far from the center of the barangay itself and could be its own barangay if its popul ...
Agusuhin, in the province of
Zambales Zambales, officially the Province of Zambales ( fil, Lalawigan ng Zambales; ilo, Probinsia ti Zambales; Pangasinan: ''Luyag/Probinsia na Zambales''; xsb, Probinsya nin Zambales), is a province in the Philippines located in the Central Luzon re ...
,
Luzon Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...
, Philippines. A large number of Koreans and Romanians who form the higher level management of the shipyard live inside the shipyard, in barracks accommodations (often jocularly called chicken coops). The land here is owned by
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (abbreviated as "SBMA", fil, Pangasiwaang Panlungsod ng Subic Bay) is a governmental agency of the Philippines. Sometimes abbreviated as SBMA, the agency has played a significant part in the development of t ...
and leased out to HHIC Phil on a 40-year basis.
Jeepneys Jeepneys (), sometimes called jeeps (), are minibus-like public utility vehicles, serving as the most popular means of public transportation in the Philippines. They are known for their crowded seating and kitsch decorations, which have become ...
and buses hired by HHIC transport workers run every day between the shipyard and the two nearby towns of
Castillejos Castillejos, officially the Municipality of Castillejos ( ilo, Ili ti Castillejos; tl, Bayan ng Castillejos), is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Zambales, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 67,889 peopl ...
and Subic, with many others staying farther out in
Olongapo Olongapo, officially the City of Olongapo ( fil, Lungsod ng Olongapo; ilo, Siudad ti Olongapo; xsb, Siyodad nin Olongapo), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines. Located in the province of Zambales ...
and
San Marcelino San Marcelino, officially the Municipality of San Marcelino ( ilo, Ili ti San Marcelino; tgl, Bayan ng San Marcelino), is a 1st class municipality in the province of Zambales, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 37 ...
. Most workers come to work at HHIC from other parts of the Philippines and stay in boarding houses in these towns. A large
ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...
takes workers to and from Olongapo daily. The company also charters 25 buses to transport its workers to and from Olongapo daily. Additionally, two smaller fast ferries owned by HHIC transport a small number of owners representatives from the Hanjin jetty (near All Hands Beach,
Subic Bay Freeport Zone The Subic Special Economic and Freeport Zone, often shorterned as Subic Bay or Subic, is a special economic zone and freeport area covering portions of the city of Olongapo and the town of Subic in Zambales, and the towns of Morong and Herm ...
) to the shipyard. Security to access the shipyard remains tight due to high pilferage by workers during the early years of the shipyard. The area is also strategically important to the
Philippine Armed Forces The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) ( fil, Sandatahang Lakas ng Pilipinas) are the military forces of the Philippines. It consists of three main service branches; the Army, the Air Force, and the Navy (including the Marine Corps). The P ...
, hence is protected by both HHIC Police and Philippine armed forces commandos.


Bankruptcy

On 22 November 2018, HHIC Phil delivered two recently completed 114,000 DWT crude oil tankers. However, with 20 vessels currently in different stages of construction, the shipyard found it difficult to service its high debts or to get further extensions from its lenders. On January 8, 2019, the yard filed for corporate rehabilitation due to default or failure to comply with its loan obligation of $412 million to five Philippine banks, namely Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., Land Bank, Metrobank,
Bank of the Philippine Islands Bank of the Philippine Islands ( fil, Bangko ng Kapuluang Pilipinas, es, Banco de las Islas Filipinas, commonly known as BPI; ) is a universal bank in the Philippines. It is the first bank in both the Philippines and Southeast Asia. It is t ...
, and Banco de Oro. This became the biggest bankruptcy in the Philippines, surpassing the $386 million default by Lehman Brothers in the Philippines in 2008. The five bank creditors are working to take over HHIC Phil's shipyard. On 19 January 2019, it was reported that two Chinese firms had filed expressions of interest to purchase the shipyard along with its debt. Subsequently, ''Trade Winds'' reported that HHIC Phil and the Philippine government had agreed upon a debt swap deal.


Labor


Nationalities employed

The managerial staff in the shipyard consists of around 100
Koreans Koreans ( South Korean: , , North Korean: , ; see names of Korea) are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Korean Peninsula. Koreans mainly live in the two Korean nation states: North Korea and South Korea (collectively and simply refe ...
. The mid-manager level staff includes Koreans,
Romanians The Romanians ( ro, români, ; dated exonym ''Vlachs'') are a Romance languages, Romance-speaking ethnic group. Sharing a common Culture of Romania, Romanian culture and Cultural heritage, ancestry, and speaking the Romanian language, they l ...
and
Filipinos Filipinos ( tl, Mga Pilipino) are the people who are citizens of or native to the Philippines. The majority of Filipinos today come from various Austronesian ethnolinguistic groups, all typically speaking either Filipino, English and/or othe ...
. The foremen for workers include Koreans, Filipinos and Romanians, most of them employed by subsidiary companies of HHIC Phil operated by Filipinos. Most of the approximately 200 Romanian workers are employed in dock 5 and a few in dock 6 through the Romanian recruitment company Gateway Trading SRL. Most of the workers, nearly 19,000, are Filipino, as of 2017. The shipyard provides free lunch, dinner and breakfast to all its workers in five large canteens.


Alleged labor violations

While HHIC's presence in Subic has brought thousands of jobs to the area, a steady stream of accidental workplace deaths and alleged labor violations has called into question the company's compliance with Philippine labor and occupational safety laws. During a two-month span in 2008, five workers were killed in accidents that may have resulted from unsafe working conditions. This prompted investigations by the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority and Philippine Congress, which found violations of safety and labor laws. At the conclusion of the Congressional investigation, legislators required Hanjin to build a medical center and comply with industrial safety laws within six months. Workers have since continued to express complaints of abuse on the part of management; one such incident was caught on camera and distributed to the Filipino news station ABS-CBN. Many workers have also begun to organize to attain union recognition. According to organizers, who have started a blog to document abuses, 60 employees have been terminated for union-related activity and over 30 have been killed in workplace accidents since the shipyard opened in 2006. Filipino church groups like the Caritas Filipinas Foundation have also rallied around the workers. HHIC-Phil general manager Pyeong Jong Yu has expressed commitment to preventing future incidents. Since 2011, standards of safety at the shipyard have improved, especially after ship owners introduced their own health and safety teams to augment the shipyard efforts.


Ships built

The shipyard builds bulk carriers, container ships and oil tankers. Additionally, it has undertaken offshore construction work such as CALM
buoys A buoy () is a floating device that can have many purposes. It can be anchored (stationary) or allowed to drift with ocean currents. Types Navigational buoys * Race course marker buoys are used for buoy racing, the most prevalent form of yac ...
for offshore projects such as the Malampaya offshore project. ;Types of ship built *
Container A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping. Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term ...
ships - Capacity in TEUs - 4,300, 3,600 and 12,800 *
Bulk Bulk can refer to: Industry * Bulk cargo * Bulk liquids * Bulk mail * Bulk material handling * Bulk pack, packaged bulk materials/products * Bulk purchasing * Baking * Bulk fermentation, the period after mixing when dough is left alone to f ...
carriers - Capacity 135,000
tonnes The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United States ...
, 175,000 tonnes, 205,000 tonnes *
VLCC An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined cru ...
- capacity 320,000 tonnes


Notable ships

* M/V ''Argolikos''- container (First container ship built in Philippines, First ship built by HHIC Phil) * M/T ''Leyla K''- tanker - Largest oil tanker built in Philippines - as of October 2011 * ''
CMA CGM Antoine de Saint Exupery ''CMA CGM Antoine de Saint Exupery'' is a container ship that is operated by French shipping company CMA CGM. As the lead ship of her class, she is the flagship of CMA CGM's fleet. Named after the French author and aviator, ''CMA CGM Antoine ...
'' (2018) - Container, CMA CGM (France)


References


External links

* {{official, http://www.hhic-phil.com/
SBMA chair cites Korean ship builder’s role in Phl economy
Philippine Information Agency The Presidential Communications Group, or simply the Communications Group, is the collective name for the offices within the Office of the President of the Philippines and refers to the position of the Office of the Press Secretary, formerly kn ...
Shipbuilding companies of the Philippines Companies based in Zambales Philippine subsidiaries of foreign companies