HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (HD KSOE), the intermediate holding company for HD Hyundai's shipbuilding business, said on August 21 that it has halted a review of establishing a joint venture with India's Cochin Shipyard Limited for the production of ship blocks.

"After signing a comprehensive memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Jul. last year, we discussed various business collaborations with Cochin Shipyard Limited, but we decided to halt the review of establishing a joint venture to build a new block fabrication plant after mutual discussions," the company disclosed. The comprehensive MOU between the two companies was signed in July 2025.

The two sides had been discussing a plan to build a new block fabrication plant on a site near Cochin Shipyard Limited.

Although the joint venture review has been dropped, HD KSOE said it intends to maintain its technical business relationship with the Indian shipbuilder.

"We will continue technical business collaboration such as design and procurement support, including the supply of key equipment such as engines for small container carriers between Cochin Shipyard Limited and a French shipping company," HD KSOE said.

The outcome keeps HD KSOE's engagement in India at the level of design, procurement, and equipment supply rather than an equity stake in new local production capacity.

HD KSOE sits at the top of South Korea's largest shipbuilding group, which operates under the HD Hyundai name following the 2022 rebranding of the Hyundai Heavy Industries Group. Its shipbuilding subsidiaries include HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, HD Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, and HD Hyundai Samho, which operate shipyards along South Korea's southern coast. Those Korean yards have been carrying order backlogs that stretch years ahead amid strong demand for high-value vessels such as LNG carriers, and Korean builders have long supplemented home-dock capacity with fabrication partners in lower-cost Asian countries. HD Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, for instance, has a long-established affiliate in Vietnam, Hyundai Vinashin Shipyard, that has supplied the group's Korean docks with blocks and hull sections.

Ship blocks are large prefabricated steel sections of a vessel's hull that are manufactured separately and then assembled and welded together at a building dock. Block construction is a standard method used across the global shipbuilding industry to improve productivity, and dedicated block fabrication plants are typically located near assembly yards.

Cochin Shipyard Limited, headquartered in Kochi in the southern Indian state of Kerala, is the largest shipbuilding and ship repair facility in India. The government-owned yard operates under India's Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and has been publicly listed since 2017. It is widely known for constructing INS Vikrant, India's first indigenously designed and built aircraft carrier, which was commissioned into the Indian Navy in 2022.

India's government has been promoting the expansion of the country's domestic shipbuilding sector through policy frameworks such as Maritime India Vision 2030, which targets a place among the world's top ten shipbuilding nations by the end of the decade. The 2025-26 Union Budget reinforced that push with a 25,000-crore rupee (roughly $3 billion) Maritime Development Fund, a recast shipbuilding financial assistance scheme, and customs duty relief on shipbuilding inputs. With the joint venture shelved, HD KSOE's retained technical cooperation keeps the group tied to the country's largest yard as those measures take effect.

Source: ChosunBiz (via Hellenic Shipping News)