HD Hyundai Heavy Industries

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries builds and repairs ships at Ulsan on the south-east coast of South Korea. Its Shipbuilding Business Unit is one of four divisions, alongside Offshore & Energy, Naval & Medium size Ships, and Engine & Machinery. Construction of the Ulsan yard began at Mipo Bay in March 1972 and was finished in two years and three months, with a 260,000 tonne VLCC ordered by a Greek owner handed over as the yard itself was completed. The company was ranked first in the world for shipbuilding orders and construction volume in 1983. The Shipbuilding Business Unit works ten large dry docks and nine Goliath cranes and completes around 50 large vessels a year. Cumulative output passed 100 million gross tons in 2012 and the 2,000th ship followed in 2015; the company now records 2,346 ships delivered to 348 shipowners. The range extends beyond conventional tankers and bulk carriers to LNG floating storage and regasification units, ethane and LEG carriers, car carriers, LNG bunkering vessels, drillships and semi-submersible drilling rigs. Recent reference designs show where the current line sits: a 16,200 TEU methanol dual-fuel container carrier for Maersk, with funnels at both the forward accommodation and the stern to free up container space and the yard's own Hi-LGAS methanol fuel supply system; a 170,000 cubic metre LNG floating storage and regasification unit with GTT Mark III membrane tanks that can also trade as an LNG carrier; a 98,000 cubic metre ethane and LPG carrier built as seven sister ships for ethane from the US Gulf Coast to Lianyungang, selected among World Class Ships in 2023; and a 300,000 DWT crude oil carrier built ready for later installation of an exhaust gas cleaning system. Repair and conversion sit with the Naval & Medium size Ships division, which has handled work on roughly 8,200 vessels and is extending into maintenance, repair and overhaul. HD Hyundai Mipo, formerly Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, ceased to exist as a separate company on 1 December 2025 when it was merged into HD Hyundai Heavy Industries; the Mipo facility at Ulsan is now operated by HD HHI and its business runs through the medium size ship marketing and sales department.