Shares of Hanwha Ocean soared 12% in Seoul trading Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump singled out the South Korean shipbuilder as a partner for constructing new Navy frigates at its Philadelphia facility.
The stock closed at ₩123,400 ($83), its biggest single-day gain this year, after Trump announced plans at his Mar-a-Lago estate to build a new class of frigates with Hanwha, calling the Korean conglomerate “a good company.”
The warships would be assembled at Hanwha Philly Shipyard, which the company acquired in 2024 for $100 million and has pledged to upgrade with $5 billion in new investment. The commitment forms part of Seoul’s $150 billion shipbuilding package under the “Make American Shipbuilding Great Again” initiative, which helped reduce tariffs on Korean exports from 25% to 15%.
Yet significant hurdles remain. Hanwha’s Philadelphia yard currently lacks a U.S. defense industrial license required for military construction, and company officials confirmed no formal order, timeline, or contract has been finalized. The facility currently produces just one vessel annually and would require substantial capacity expansion.
Industry observers note that Trump’s public endorsement may accelerate the licensing process, though the Byrnes-Tollefson Amendment continues to bar Navy ships from being built outside the United States, limiting how much work can shift to Korea’s more capable yards.
