Hanwha Ocean, the Shipbuilder Driving Korea’s Naval Export Push

Hanwha Ocean is South Korea’s second-largest shipbuilder and its most aggressive naval exporter, the former Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering rescued by Hanwha Group in a roughly 2 trillion won deal in 2023 and now posting revenue near 10.8 trillion won. From the vast Okpo yard on Geoje Island, it builds Aegis destroyers, KSS-III submarines and the LNG carriers that pay the bills.

Hanwha Ocean at a glance

From Daewoo to Hanwha, the DSME rescue

DSME spent most of two decades as the industry’s problem child, technically brilliant, financially ruinous, kept alive by the state-owned Korea Development Bank after accounting scandals and shipbuilding downturns. A planned merger with Hyundai collapsed under EU competition objections in 2022, opening the door for Hanwha Group, which injected roughly 2 trillion won for a 49.3% controlling stake and renamed the company Hanwha Ocean in May 2023.

The takeover completed Hanwha’s transformation into a full-spectrum defense conglomerate, land systems and engines at Hanwha Aerospace, electronics elsewhere in the group, and now hulls. Under new ownership the yard swung back to profit in 2024, helped by high LNG carrier prices and naval work.

What Hanwha Ocean builds

The commercial side matters to the military story. LNG carriers, where Korean yards hold a technology edge, generate the cash flow and workforce scale that let Hanwha Ocean price naval bids aggressively, a structural advantage European naval yards, as profiled in our look at TKMS, cannot easily match.

Hanwha Ocean submarines

The flagship product is the KSS-III, a 3,000–3,600 ton class of air-independent propulsion attack submarines, the later boats adding lithium-ion batteries and a vertical launch system for ballistic missiles, a capability almost unique among conventional submarines. That résumé anchors export campaigns in Poland’s Orka program, Canada’s patrol submarine project, where Hanwha and rival HHI have pitched Korean boats, and several other navies. The company also competes across surface fleets, and readers can see where Korean shipbuilding sits globally in our Top 10 navies ranking.

Hanwha Ocean in the US market

Hanwha made the boldest Korean move yet into American shipbuilding, buying Philly Shipyard for a reported $100 million in 2024 and winning US Navy maintenance work, including an overhaul of the supply ship USNS Wally Schirra at Geoje, the first such job for a Korean yard. With US politics newly focused on rebuilding naval shipbuilding capacity and open to allied help, Hanwha Ocean is positioned as the test case for Korean yards entering that market, from MRO toward, potentially, new construction.

Risks remain, labor shortages at home, thin margins on legacy commercial backlog, and export campaigns where French, German and Japanese rivals fight hard. But the direction since 2023 has been one way, up.

The financial turnaround gives the strategy credibility. After years of losses under state stewardship, the company reported an operating profit in 2024 on that 10.8 trillion won revenue base, and its naval order pipeline, from KSS-III batches to KDDX work shares and foreign campaigns, stretches well into the 2030s. Management has framed the goal plainly, to become one of the world’s top naval exporters within the decade, with the commercial yard underwriting the attempt. Few shipbuilders anywhere can match that combination of drydock scale, submarine technology and conglomerate capital.

Hanwha Ocean frequently asked questions

Who owns Hanwha Ocean?

Hanwha Group companies hold a controlling stake bought in 2023; the rest trades on the Korea Exchange.

Is Hanwha Ocean the same as DSME?

Yes, it is Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering renamed in May 2023 after Hanwha took control.

What submarines does Hanwha Ocean build?

The KSS-III Dosan Ahn Changho class, 3,000–3,600 ton AIP boats with lithium-ion batteries and vertical launch tubes on later units.

How big is Hanwha Ocean?

Reported 2024 revenue of about 10.8 trillion won, roughly $8 billion, with a direct workforce around 10,000 at the Okpo yard.

Why did Hanwha buy Philly Shipyard?

To gain a US production base as Washington opens naval maintenance and potentially construction to allied shipbuilders.