U.S. Navy Minister John Phelan is reportedly scheduled to visit South Korea at the end of this month to meet with domestic shipbuilding companies. If it goes as planned, this will be the first visit by a ministerial-level official from the Trump administration following a phone call between Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, acting on behalf of President Yoon Suk Yeol, and President Donald Trump discussing cooperation in the shipbuilding sector between South Korea and the U.S.

According to the shipbuilding industry on the 24th, Minister Phelan is expected to visit South Korea on the 30th to tour HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hanwha Ocean shipyards. This visit by Minister Phelan is reportedly being conducted under government leadership. The industry speculates that Minister Phelan’s visit is to personally inspect the shipyard sites of each company before assigning the MRO business.

Ambassador Jo Hyun-dong (left) meets with U.S. Navy Minister John Phelan on Mar. 23 (local time) to greet him. /Courtesy of Yonhap News

Previously, in February of last year, Carlos Del Toro, then-Minister of the Navy during the Biden administration, visited Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan, Hanwha Ocean, and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries. Subsequently, Hanwha Ocean became the first domestic shipyard to secure the MRO business for the U.S. Navy’s logistics support vessel (USNS Wally Schirra) in August of last year. Hanwha Ocean also won the MRO business for the U.S. Navy’s refueling ship (USNS Yukon) in November of the same year. It is scheduled to be delivered to the U.S. Navy after maintenance at the Geoje Shipyard this year.

The industry expects that the pace of winning the U.S. Navy’s MRO business, which amounts to 20 trillion won annually, will accelerate. Previously, a U.S. Navy official conveyed to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration in February that it is likely to outsource at least six U.S. Navy vessels' MRO to domestic companies this year. Also, South Korean Ambassador to the U.S. Cho Hyun-dong met with Minister Phelan at the U.S. Department of Defense (Pentagon) in Washington, D.C., on the 23rd (local time) to discuss strengthening South Korea-U.S. cooperation in shipbuilding.