Global shipbuilding giant Hanwha Marine (formerly known as Daewoo Shipbuilding) has won a heavyweight offshore wind power order, acquiring the EPC general contracting rights for the Xin'an Niu'er offshore wind power project in South Korea for a contract amount of 9.4 billion yuan. The project is jointly executed by Hanhua Ocean and Modern Engineering and Construction Company, with a total investment of approximately 12.5 billion yuan and a planned installed capacity of 390 megawatts. It is a core component of the 8.2 GW offshore wind power industrial park in Xin'an, South Korea.

As a benchmark wind power project led by South Korea, the advancement of the Xin'an Niu'er project has attracted much attention. Hanhua Ocean is not only responsible for key tasks such as project licensing compliance and communication with residents throughout the process, but also innovatively builds an industrial model of "localization+ecologicalization", promoting Korean enterprises to deeply participate in core processes such as submarine cables, infrastructure component manufacturing, and offshore installation. At the same time, in order to ensure the efficient implementation of the project, Industrial Bank of Korea and National Bank will take the lead in financing. The Future Energy Fund plans to inject 2.585 billion yuan and is expected to complete the fundraising in early 2026.

It is worth noting that Hanhua Ocean is using this project as a pivot to accelerate the layout of core offshore wind power equipment. The company plans to independently build South Korea's first 15MW offshore wind power installation vessel, which is expected to be put into operation in the first half of 2028. This vessel has an annual installation capacity of 700-800 MW and will fill the gap in large-scale wind power installation equipment in South Korea. Previously, Hanhua Ocean had completed its transformation from a shipbuilding enterprise to a new energy infrastructure service provider by acquiring Hanhua Engineering Construction's wind power business and signing a memorandum of cooperation with Hyundai Engineering and Construction, holding a 2 GW offshore wind power project permit.

The landing of this order is also a key achievement of Hanhua Marine's business restructuring. In November 2025, the company will merge the Marine Equipment Division with the Energy Infrastructure Division to form the Energy Complete Equipment Division, achieving integrated EPC management throughout the entire process and driving the long-term sluggish marine business back onto the growth track. Philippe Levy, the Minister of Complete Equipment Business for Hanwha Marine Energy, stated that this project is an important turning point for the company to break through traditional shipbuilding and marine engineering businesses and enter the field of environmental energy infrastructure.

Looking at the world, offshore wind power is entering a period of explosive growth. The Global Wind Energy Council predicts that the annual compound growth rate of the offshore wind power industry will reach 21% in the next decade, and the total installed capacity worldwide will soar to 441 gigawatts by 2034. However, the current installed capacity of the South Korean market is only 0.35 gigawatts, which is relatively lagging behind due to difficulties such as cumbersome licensing and funding shortages. To this end, the South Korean government has set a target of 25 gigawatts of offshore wind power installation by 2035 and is accelerating the improvement of supporting infrastructure such as ports and ships.

Industry analysis points out that Hanhua Ocean's winning bid this time will not only help the localization process of South Korea's offshore wind power industry, but also seize the opportunity in the global wave of new energy infrastructure with the advantage of the entire industry chain, injecting "Korean strength" into the achievement of global carbon neutrality goals.Editor/Bian Wenjun\