Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said a Japanese shipbuilder is among those who expressed interest in taking over the operation of Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Philippines (HHIC-Phil) in Zambales.

“There are several shipyards, ship companies around the world they are also interested. One is United States, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian and also Australian,” he said during the question and answer portion of National Defense College of the Philippines Alumni Forum in Camp Aguinaldo Monday.

“I think lately I heard some Turkish or some European shipyards are interested,” he added.

Lorenzana failed to name these foreign shipbuilding companies but he confirmed Hyundai of South Korea is among those interested in HHIC-Phil.

“Lately I also heard that Hyundai of Korea is also interested,” he said.

However, Lorenzana said based on the government’s plan “if worse comes to worst” the government can take over the facility as the Senate allocated funds for possible eventualities.

“The Hanjin shipyard is not actually, has not filed for bankruptcy. It is just asking for rehabilitation because the problem is cash flow. It is still building some ships here in the Philippines but it needs money to keep operating day-to-day basis so it’s still in the works,” he said.

“However... the Senate has allocated money to take over the facility and then the Navy plus some local shipbuilders also can come in and run the facility. That’s the plan,” he added. Robina Asido/DMS