Korea's $150 Billion MASGA Shipbuilding Pledge Meets the Jones Act at Hanwha Philly Shipyard
South Korea has put a number on its bet on American shipbuilding. Under a $350 billion Korea-US investment framework, $150 billion is set aside for shipbuilding cooperation, under the name MASGA, short for Make American Shipbuilding Great Again. Korea's trade minister and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick signed the memorandum in May.
It's a large sum for an industry that barely exists in the US at commercial scale. American yards build a tiny fraction of the world's merchant ships, well under 1 percent by tonnage. China builds more than half. Korea and Japan build most of the rest.
Who is doing what
All three of Korea's big yards are involved, each in a different way.
Hanwha is furthest along. It bought the Philadelphia shipyard for $100 million in December 2024 and announced a $5 billion expansion plan in August 2025. The goal is to lift output from about one ship a year to as many as 20 within a decade. Hanwha has also ordered 10 medium-range oil and chemical tankers from its own US yard, with the first due in early 2029. Late last year the US president said Hanwha would partner on Navy frigates.
HD Hyundai is the anchor investor, working with Cerberus Capital and the Korea Development Bank on a multi-billion-dollar maritime investment vehicle.
Samsung Heavy Industries has partnered with General Dynamics' NASSCO in San Diego and opened its first US research center.
The Jones Act is why this happens in America
The Merchant Marine Act of 1920, better known as the Jones Act, requires any ship carrying cargo between two US ports to be built in the US, owned by Americans and crewed by Americans. Korean yards can't just build cheap ships in Ulsan or Geoje and sell them into the US domestic trade. If they want that market, and the Navy work that comes with a US footprint, they have to build here.
That also explains the economics. US-built ships cost about five times what the same ship costs in Korea. Philadelphia is currently building three container ships for about $335 million each. Larger ships built in Asia cost under $270 million. The Jones Act protects that price gap. Without it, almost no one would buy a US-built commercial ship.
The workforce problem
Money is the easy part. People are harder. American yards have lost two generations of welders, pipefitters and naval architects. Hanwha has brought Korean trainers to Philadelphia on multi-year programs to rebuild those skills. Getting from one ship a year to 20 needs thousands more trained workers, and they don't exist yet.
What it means for shipping
For global shipping, MASGA won't change much for years. Even a fully expanded Philadelphia yard would be a rounding error next to Hengli, Hyundai Ulsan or Samsung Geoje. China took 89 of the 102 VLCCs ordered in the first five months of this year.
Where it matters is policy. The US fees on Chinese-built ships, now paused until November, were meant to push demand toward non-Chinese yards and create a reason to build in America. MASGA is the supply side of that push. It gives Washington a partner with actual shipbuilding know-how, and it gives Korea a way to protect its position with its biggest ally while China dominates the global orderbook.
It has already made Hanwha a target. Beijing sanctioned Hanwha Ocean's US subsidiaries last October when the port fee fight peaked. That tells you China sees the Korea-US yard alliance as a real competitive threat, even if the ship count is small today.
The test is simple. Can Philadelphia deliver ships on time and near budget within three years? If it can, more orders follow. If it can't, $150 billion becomes a political number and not much more.