Splash247: HD Hyundai buys Doosan’s Vietnam yard for $207m

HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (HD KSOE), the holding company of HD Hyundai Group, has struck a deal to acquire Doosan Vina, the Vietnamese manufacturing unit of Doosan Enerbility, in a transaction worth 290bn won ($207.5m).

The deal will see HD KSOE take full control of Doosan Vina’s heavy industry facility in Quang Ngai Province. The 110 ha complex, founded in 2006, specialises in the fabrication of desalination plants, boilers, process equipment and port cranes.

Doosan Enerbility, formerly Doosan Heavy Industries, has been restructuring its overseas businesses in recent years to pare debt and sharpen its focus on power generation.

For HD KSOE, meanwhile, the move deepens its industrial footprint in Southeast Asia, a region where Korean shipbuilders increasingly rely on lower-cost capacity to stay competitive. HD KSOE plans to turn the complex into a regional hub for independent cargo tanks and port cranes in Asia.

The company has had a shipbuilding presence in Vietnam for many years. HD Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding is in the process of expanding capacity to build 15 ships a year up from the current maximum of 12 with plans to potentially expand further to 23 ships a year by 2030.

The yard traces its history back to 1996 when it was formed as a repair joint venture with Vietnam’s state-owned shipyard group. It entered the shipbuilding business in 2008, quitting repair work entirely in 2011.