SEOUL-- President Yoon Suk Yeol visited a Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. shipyard in the southwestern city of Gunsan on Friday, marking the shipyard's return to business after a five-year hiatus.
Yoon traveled to the city 179 kilometers south of Seoul to attend a sending ceremony for the first block, a welded steel structure that forms a part of a ship, produced since the shipyard resumed operations last October.
The shipyard had been suspended in 2017 amid a global decline in ship orders. The block was to be shipped to the southeastern port city of Ulsan, where Hyundai Heavy Industries is headquartered.
During the ceremony, Yoon promised to support sustainable growth of the shipbuilding industry by improving systems to attract workers from home and abroad, and working to invest 140 billion won (US$110.8 million) this year in the development of environmentally friendly shipbuilding technology, according to his office.
Yoon's campaign promise to restart the shipyard by January this year was fulfilled earlier than scheduled, his office added.
Yoon also noted during the ceremony that South Korean shipbuilders won 37 percent of global shipbuilding orders last year, the biggest share since 2018.
Source: Yonhap News Agency