US requests information on Korean shipbuilders' naval construction capacity: sources

The USNS Alan Shepard, a dry cargo ship belonging to the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet, arrives at a pier in the southeastern city of Ulsan for regular maintenance, Sept. 30, 2025. Courtesy of Hyundai Heavy Industries Co.

The United States has asked major Korean shipbuilders to provide information on their capacity to build naval vessels, including destroyers and fleet replenishment ships, industry sources said Wednesday.

The U.S. Department of Defense and the Navy recently sent requests for information (RFIs) to HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and Hanwha Ocean Co., and the two companies submitted details on their destroyer design capabilities and shipbuilding capacity last month, according to the sources familiar with the matter.

For a separate RFI on medium-sized naval tankers, the two shipbuilders and Samsung Heavy Industries Co. also submitted responses, they noted.

"We responded to the U.S. RFIs by providing a comprehensive overview of the shipyards' capabilities, including their shipbuilding track record, design workforce and expertise, and annual shipbuilding capacity," an industry official said, asking for anonymity.

Under the U.S. Federal Acquisition Regulation, an RFI is a procedure used by the government to gather pricing, delivery terms and other market information for planning purposes.

The latest move came after U.S. President Donald Trump asked President Lee Jae Myung during last month's Group of Seven (G7) summit whether Korean shipbuilders would be able to quickly build 10 U.S. Navy vessels. Lee replied that Korean shipbuilders were capable of doing so and would make their best efforts.

Hanwha Ocean's shipyard in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province / Korea Times photo by Kim Hyeong-joon

The RFIs have raised expectations that Seoul and Washington will accelerate their shipbuilding partnership under the "Make American Shipbuilding Great Again" (MASGA) initiative, unveiled during the Lee-Trump summit in November last year.

Under the agreement, Korea committed $150 billion of its $350 billion U.S. investment package to support shipbuilding projects in naval and commercial shipbuilding as well as related supply chains.

Since then, Korean shipbuilders have stepped up efforts to enter the tightly regulated U.S. naval shipbuilding market, where foreign participation is limited under the Jones Act and other regulations.

Hanwha Ocean has been seeking to secure the necessary licenses to build U.S. Navy destroyers following its acquisition of the Philadelphia Shipyard in Pennsylvania.

HD Hyundai has established a partnership with Huntington Ingalls Industries, while Samsung Heavy Industries has formed a partnership with General Dynamics NASSCO.