What the Philippines can offer:
Readily Available Skilled Manpower
- The country has adequate supply of skilled manpower for shipbuilding and ship repair.
- TESDA has about 63,000 certified welders in its registry.
- Filipino workers are trainable for the skills that would fit shipbuilders’ requirements; hence, they can be sourced within the city or municipality where shipyards could be located.
Available Areas Suitable to Set up Shipyards
- Establishment of a shipyard in the Maritime Industrial Park within the Phividec Industrial Estate in Misamis Oriental is open.
- The 54,000-hectare business hub in Port Irene at the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) is being primed to be the country’s next world-class shipyard; it is now undergoing upgrade including the lengthening of the pier to accommodate 20,000 deadweight-ton vessels.
Liberalized Imports of Raw Materials
- Most companies get their required components and raw materials from foreign sources, i.e., US, Europe, or Asia.
- Importation of major raw materials has been liberalized since 1989 that allows companies to get good quality inputs at favorable prices considering that raw material costs and their availability affect the competitiveness of the shipbuilding industry.
- Shipbuilders located in economic zones enjoy tax and duty exemptions.
Employment Generation
- The increase in shipyard operations is establishing a trend in employment that is favorable to the sector.
- The biggest bulk of workers comprise the skilled and semi-skilled workers, with a total number of 27,688 or 70% of total manpower.
- About 63,000 welders are listed in the Registry of Certified Welders by TESDA.
- More than 50,000 graduates of engineering and architectural courses in 2009 employable in the industry.
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Shipbuilding
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How the Philippines became one of the top shipbuilding countries in the world
True to its maritime heritage, the Philippines plays host to the world’s largest shipbuilder, Hanjin Heavy Industries. The company maintains a modern shipyard located approximately 150-kilometers northwest of Manila, in Subic, one of the Philippines’ premiere economic zones.
The company started its operations in 2008, producing 521 million-US dollars’ worth of ships. By 2011 the figure more than tripled, reaching 1.75 billion US dollars. It aims to reach a 2.5 billion-US dollar sales figure by 2016.
Hanjin’s investments made the Philippines the fourth largest shipbuilder in the world. |
