South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries is set to deepen its footprint in Southeast Asia through a newly announced strategic partnership with PetroVietnam, marking a significant step in Vietnam’s ambitions to become a regional shipbuilding hub.

The collaboration will focus on the construction of oil and chemical tankers at Vietnamese yards, leveraging Samsung Heavy’s design and technical expertise alongside PetroVietnam’s industrial base and domestic infrastructure.

The deal is expected to reinvigorate Vietnam’s state-owned shipbuilding sector, which has struggled in recent years due to debt, project delays, and operational inefficiencies. By partnering with one of the world’s leading shipbuilders, PetroVietnam hopes to upgrade local capabilities and improve competitiveness in the global tanker market.

The agreement includes technology transfer, workforce training, and the potential for localised construction of tankers, with initial output likely targeting the regional MR product tanker segment, which continues to see firm demand across Asia. In the years ahead, Samsung Heavy and PetroVietnam envisage building tankers up to suezmax class in terms of size.

For Samsung Heavy, the partnership offers a lower-cost production option in a country with growing industrial ambitions. It also provides an alternative production base outside South Korea as labour and energy costs continue to rise domestically. Samsung Heavy also has a production base in China, while earlier plans to collaborate with Russia’s top shipbuilder fell through with the onset of the full scale invasion of Ukraine.

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, a rival of Samsung Heavy’s, has a shipyard in Vietnam also.