South Korean defense giant Hanwha has made a more than $1 billion offer to acquire Austal USA and its major naval shipbuilding operation in Mobile.
The nonbinding proposal values the American subsidiary of Australian shipbuilder Austal between $1.05 billion and $1.2 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. The companies are now conducting due diligence, and no final agreement has been reached.
An acquisition would give Hanwha control of one of Alabama’s largest and most strategically important defense manufacturing operations.
Austal USA employs more than 3,000 people in Mobile and operates approximately 1.5 million square feet of indoor manufacturing space. The shipyard builds vessels for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard and has increasingly expanded into steel shipbuilding and submarine work.
The company currently manufactures modules supporting both the Virginia- and Columbia-class submarine programs. Austal is also constructing a new 390,000-square-foot submarine module manufacturing facility in Mobile designed to significantly increase its role in the Navy’s submarine industrial base.
Hanwha has been steadily expanding its presence in American shipbuilding.
The South Korean conglomerate acquired Philly Shipyard for $100 million in 2024 and later announced a $5 billion plan to expand and modernize the Pennsylvania operation. Hanwha has said it intends to sharply increase production there while transferring advanced shipbuilding technology and training workers in the United States.
Hanwha has also pursued Austal for several years.
In 2024, Hanwha Ocean offered approximately $662 million to acquire Austal’s entire Australian parent company. Austal rejected that proposal, citing uncertainty over whether American and Australian regulators would approve foreign ownership of a contractor involved in sensitive naval programs.
Hanwha subsequently acquired a minority stake in Austal. Australian regulators approved a request last year allowing the company to increase its ownership to as much as 19.9%, subject to strict national-security conditions governing access to sensitive information and influence over the company.
The latest proposal is focused specifically on Austal’s U.S. operations rather than acquiring the entire Australian company.
The potential deal comes as the Trump administration has made rebuilding domestic shipbuilding capacity a national-security priority and encouraged greater investment in American naval manufacturing.
Hanwha has positioned itself as a major participant in that effort, combining its extensive South Korean shipbuilding capabilities with a growing U.S. industrial footprint.
For Alabama, a sale would place one of Mobile’s largest employers and a key piece of the U.S. naval industrial base under the ownership of one of South Korea’s largest defense and industrial conglomerates.
Any transaction would still face negotiations and potentially significant regulatory scrutiny because of Austal USA’s work on sensitive U.S. Navy programs.
Sawyer Knowles is a state and political reporter for Yellowhammer News. You may contact him at [email protected].
