Hanwha, HD Hyundai vie to secure Vietnamese shipbuilding workers

Viet · Jul 24, 2023

Hanwha Ocean President Jung In-sub, eighth from left, and Vietnam's Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien, seventh from left, pose with participants of a memorandum of understanding signing ceremony in Hanoi, Saturday. Courtesy of Hanwha Ocean

By Park Jae-hyuk

The fierce rivalry between Hanwha and HD Hyundai for dominance in the shipbuilding industry has developed into a competition to secure Vietnamese workers amid the industry's lingering workforce shortage, according to industry officials, Sunday.

Hanwha Ocean signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade in Hanoi, Saturday, for their comprehensive cooperation in training Vietnamese shipbuilding workers and the shipbuilder's hiring of those workers.

This came a month after Hanwha Group Vice Chairman Kim Dong-kwan joined a business delegation accompanying President Yoon Suk Yeol on his state visit to Vietnam.

"The latest MOU is intended to satisfy our demand for workers by supporting programs to strengthen the capabilities of vocational training institutions under the Vietnamese ministry," a Hanwha Ocean official said. "We expect the cooperation to enable us to establish a stabilized plan to hire skilled foreign workers."

HD Hyundai President Chung Ki-sun, second from left, inspects Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding's shipyard in Khanh Hoa, Vietnam, in this June file photo. Courtesy of HD Hyundai

HD Hyundai President Chung Ki-sun also inspected Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding's shipyard in Khanh Hoa last month, during his visit to the Southeast Asian country as a member of the presidential business delegation.

The company is reportedly considering exchanging workers in Korea and Vietnam by training employees at its Vietnamese factory.

"HD Hyundai was able to achieve excellent results in Vietnam, thanks to the hard work of its executives and employees despite unfavorable circumstances," he said at that time. "I will continue to work harder for Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding to write a model success story representing the Korean shipbuilding industry."

Since the establishment of Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding in 1996, Vietnam has grown into a country winning the fifth-most shipbuilding orders in the world. It is also known to have the largest number of skilled and experienced shipbuilding workers among Southeast Asian nations.

Korean shipbuilders have therefore preferred hiring Vietnamese workers.

Data compiled by the Ministry of Justice earlier this year also showed that Vietnamese nationals accounted for 55.1 percent of 1,595 foreigners who received E-7 visas between January 2022 and January 2023 for specific activities related to shipbuilding