The United States has asked major South Korean shipbuilders to provide information on their capacity to build naval vessels including destroyers and fleet replenishment ships, industry sources said.
HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and Hanwha Ocean Co. submitted details on their destroyer design capabilities and shipbuilding capacity last month. The three companies, including Samsung Heavy Industries Co., also responded to a separate request on medium-sized naval tankers.
An industry official said the responses provided a comprehensive overview of the shipyards' capabilities including track record, design workforce and annual capacity. The move follows a conversation at last month's G7 summit in which President Donald Trump asked President Lee Jae Myung whether Korean shipbuilders could quickly build 10 U.S. Navy vessels.
The requests have raised expectations for faster cooperation under the Make American Shipbuilding Great Again initiative announced at the Lee-Trump summit in October last year. South Korea committed $150 billion of its $350 billion U.S. investment package to naval and commercial shipbuilding projects.
