HD Hyundai in Advanced Talks to Buy a US Shipyard Under MASGA
San Diego and the Texas Gulf Coast are in the frame as US yard valuations climb
South Korea's HD Hyundai Group is reportedly in advanced negotiations to acquire a US shipyard, the next step in an American strategy that has so far been built on partnerships rather than ownership.
The group has narrowed its search to two or three targets and is looking for a presence either in the San Diego area, close to the headquarters of the US Pacific Fleet, or along the Texas Gulf Coast. A deal was close to being announced in Washington in July, but a last-minute disagreement over price stopped it.
The push sits under Korea's MASGA initiative, short for Make American Shipbuilding Great Again, and has accelerated since the White House released a shipbuilding strategy that provides for the use of foreign yards under the so-called Finnish model, the arrangement covering the Arctic Security Cutters being built for the US Coast Guard.
Under that framework, investment in or acquisition of a US yard is one of the qualifying criteria for the work. Washington wants local hiring and technology transfer into the American company in exchange for allowing the first two vessels of a new class to be built internationally.
The commercial effect has been to raise the price of entry. Valuations of US yards have increased significantly, with larger asking prices, as the administration presses ahead with plans to expand the Navy and modernise the Coast Guard fleet, leaving a small pool of facilities and more than one buyer.
HD Hyundai has enlisted the US private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management and the Korea Development Bank to support the investment. The two already have a working relationship, as HD Hyundai leases the newly relaunched Philippine shipyard from Cerberus. Its intermediate holding company, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, established a US subsidiary, HD Hyundai USA, in May 2026.
Ownership would close a gap with Hanwha, which acquired the Philly Shipyard in 2024, is investing to expand its capability there, and has said it wants to buy the US operations of Austal. The two Korean groups have emerged as the principal competitors for American warship work.
An acquisition would sit on top of partnerships already in place. In 2025 HD Hyundai signed an agreement with Huntington Ingalls Industries, the largest US defence shipbuilder, covering shipbuilding productivity and advanced technological cooperation, and a separate agreement with Edison Chouest Offshore envisaging medium-sized LNG dual-fuel containerships at Tampa Ship.
Those arrangements widened this year. HD Hyundai and Kiewit Offshore Services signed a strategic partnership last month covering shipbuilding projects for the US market and other areas of mutual interest, and a nine-figure agreement with Siemens established the German group as a technology partner for HD Hyundai's next-generation shipbuilding and digitalisation strategy in the United States.
