Hanwha Ocean announced that it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Polish shipyard PGZ SW and Nautic for the construction and maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) of vessels during the International Maritime Defense Industry Exhibition (MADEX) 2025 on the 29th.
The signing ceremony took place the previous day at the MADEX exhibition booth in Haeundae, Busan, attended by Auh Sung-cheol, president of Hanwha Ocean's special vessel division, Marcin Ringwiejski, president of PGZ SW, and Monica Kozakiewicz, president of Nautic, along with other officials.
The Polish state-owned defense group PGZ's shipyards, PGZ SW and Nautic, agreed to jointly seek strategic cooperation opportunities with Hanwha Ocean not only for the submarine project, known as ORKA, but also to support the modernization of their national naval vessel industry and international exports.
PGZ SW and Hanwha Ocean plan to explore cooperation on the joint development and international export of offshore patrol vessels (OPVs), surface ships, support vessels, unmanned surface and underwater systems, and export-optimized submarines.
Through this agreement, Hanwha Ocean and the two corporations plan to collaborate on the joint development and construction, maintenance, technology transfer, and export of various vessels, including the ORKA submarine project. They aim to strengthen connections with local enterprises in Poland and enhance competitiveness for securing the ORKA submarine project.
Hanwha Ocean explained that this MOU signing is the fruition of several working meetings held between the two companies since March to discuss cooperation plans. The two Polish delegations also visited Hanwha Ocean's Geoje manufacturing facility on the 27th.
President Marcin noted, "I was deeply impressed by the state-of-the-art smart shipyard system and how meticulously maintained the shipyard is." President Monica also stated, "The advanced production system, where dozens of vessels such as container ships, LNG carriers, warships, and FPSOs are built simultaneously, is quite impressive," expressing great expectations for this collaboration.
President Auh stated, "Cooperation with prominent Polish companies will be a bridge for cooperation in the shipbuilding industry between South Korea and Poland, and we will create a new cooperative model in the global defense market beyond securing the ORKA submarine project."