Hanwha Ocean announced as preferred bidder for Thai frigate deal

Hanwha Ocean has been selected as the preferred bidder for the Royal Thai Navy’s next-generation frigate program, putting the Korean shipbuilder in line for a second warship order from Thailand eight years after it delivered the country’s current flagship.

The Thai navy notified Hanwha Ocean of its selection on Tuesday, and the company then disclosed it in a regulatory filing on Wednesday. A preferred bidder status announcement is the procedural step before a final contract and covers negotiation of technical specifications and project scope.

The Royal Thai Navy budgeted 16.73 billion baht ($508.5 million) for the construction of one frigate and integrated logistics support, according to its tender notice.

Hanwha Ocean said that the amount equals 5.3 percent of its consolidated revenue of 12.78 trillion won ($9.5 billion) for the year ending in December 2025.

Defense firms from Spain, Singapore and Turkey also competed for the bid, but Hanwha Ocean was chosen as the preferred bidder because of its delivery record in Thailand. In 2018, it handed over the first frigate, HTMS Bhumibol Adulyadej, a 3,700-ton multipurpose stealth vessel built by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, the company’s predecessor.

“Hanwha Ocean was selected as the preferred bidder based on its experience successfully delivering the first frigate to the Royal Thai Navy in 2018 and its accumulated warship construction technology,” the company said in a statement.

Hanwha Ocean also credited government backing.

“Active support from the government and the military, including the Ministry of National Defense, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration and the Korean Navy, also contributed to the selection process,” it said in a press release.

Similarly, the company described continued defense exchanges, including navy-to-navy exchanges and bilateral talks, and port calls in Thailand by the Korean Navy cruise training task group as a “foundation” for the bid.

Hanwha Ocean said that it intends to use the selection to strengthen long-term maritime defense cooperation with Thailand and to expand its business in the global surface combatants market, including Southeast Asia.

The bid was the first test of Korean naval exports since Canada chose Germany’s TKMS over Hanwha last week, and it opens a series of upcoming contests. Saudi Arabia is weighing four to six submarines and five frigates; the Philippines is considering two submarines; and Greece is doing the same with four submarines.

Two Korean companies have decided to split their work for these future bids, with HD Hyundai tackling surface ships and Hanwha focusing on submarines.

BY KIM MIN-YOUNG [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]