HD Hyundai Launches First Newbuild At Philippine Yard Since 2019
The South Korean shipbuilding group HD Hyundai has launched a 115,000 deadweight tonne product tanker at its Philippine subsidiary, the first newbuilding to leave the Subic yard since operations there ceased in 2019. The Orion Jade measures 250 metres overall, began construction in September 2025 and is among the largest vessels the shipyard is currently equipped to build.
The vessel is the first of four LR2-class product tankers ordered by a South Korean owner from the group in December 2024. A second series of four tankers of the same size will follow for a Japanese owner, with delivery scheduled across 2027 and 2028, giving the yard a confirmed programme of eight ships as it restarts. The Philippine subsidiary was established in 2024 by the group's shipbuilding holding company and operates by leasing the first dry dock at the Subic facility rather than owning the yard outright.
The site has a difficult history. It was built and run by a South Korean builder that became one of the largest shipyards in the Philippines before entering insolvency, leaving a facility of considerable capability and a workforce with the skills to use it, both of which sat largely idle for years. An American investment firm acquired the site in 2022 under a long-term lease, and the arrangement under which HD Hyundai now leases a single dock is a deliberately partial commitment to a location that has already failed once under full ownership.
The strategic logic is about capacity and cost rather than geography for its own sake. Korean yards are booked into the end of the decade and are competing for skilled labour in a shrinking domestic workforce, while Chinese competitors have expanded aggressively on price. A Philippine facility with an existing dry dock, deepwater access and a trained labour pool offers a route to additional berths without the capital cost of new construction in Korea, and it does so in a country with a large seafaring and shipbuilding tradition.
Whether the restart holds depends on the same factors that closed the yard the first time. Product tanker demand is currently strong, with rerouting around disrupted chokepoints lengthening voyages and absorbing tonnage, and eight confirmed hulls give the operation a genuine start. But subcontractor networks, component supply and the retention of trained workers all take years to rebuild, and a yard that restarts on the strength of a cyclical peak has to survive the trough that follows it.
