Hanjin targets 22,000 workers this year

The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority over the weekend reported that Korean shipbuilding facility Hanjin Heavy Industries Corp.-Philippines (HHIC-Phil) is expected to boost it employment to 22,000 this year.

To date Hanjin’s workforce stand at 16,600 but officials said that the company is targeting to increase this till the end of the year.

According to Taek Kyun Yoo, general manager for external business of Hanjin Heavy Industries
Corp.-Philippines (HHIC-Phil), the Korean shipbuilding giant will create more jobs at its Redondo Peninsula shipyard after signing in more new building projects in the first half of 2010.

“Hanjin has contracted the construction of 20 more vessels worth about $1.2 billion in the first half of this year,” Yoo informed Zambales Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. in a recent briefing at
Hanjin’s headquarters here.

He added that Hanjin new orders of about 20 vessels which total to about 56 new order worth $4.9 billion. The new order according to the official will force Hanjin to increase its manpower.

Hanjin manpower target this year is around 22,000, 24,000 in 2011 and 25,000 in 2012.

According to Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) administrator Armand Arreza, Hanjin has remained Subic’s top exporter since last year by posting freight on board (FOB) value totaling $372.74 million in the first half of this year.

“We expect Hanjin to remain as the Subic free port’s top exporter for the next few years, and to fuel the growth of Subic’s maritime industry,” he said earlier in a statement.

Yoo also said that since 2007, Hanjin has helped train some 22,000 workers at its skills training center in the Subic Bay Freeport. The trained workers included welders, painters, pipe fitters, electricians, machinists, and outfitters, who were mostly hired later at the Hanjin shipyard.

He added that the Korean shipbuilder, which has invested a total of $1.9 billion in its Subic shipyard, had so far manufactured 14 vessels worth $850 million since 2008 when it delivered its first vessel, the MV Argolikos, to a Greek shipping company.

With the new orders, Yoo said that Hanjin would sell about $700 million worth of vessels this year, $935 million in 2011, and $1.28 billion in 2012.