HJ Shipbuilding wins 95.5 billion won Busan exhibition hall contract

HJ Shipbuilding & Construction said Tuesday it secured a 95.5 billion won ($70.4 million) construction contract for the third exhibition hall at Bexco in Busan, its share of a project worth 234 billion won ($172 million) in total.

The order amounts to 4.8 percent of the company's recent annual revenue of 2 trillion won ($1.48 billion), according to a regulatory filing. HJ Shipbuilding holds a 40.8 percent stake in the consortium building the facility.

The contract period runs from Dec. 21 to Feb. 4, 2031. The client is the Public Procurement Service, with the Busan Metropolitan City Construction Headquarters named as the end user.

The consortium, led by HJ Shipbuilding, was selected as the qualified detailed-design bidder on July 6 after finishing first overall in a tender that weighted technical proposals at 60 percent and price at 40 percent. It then signed the construction contract with the Public Procurement Service.

The exhibition hall will be built on the parking lot site in front of Bexco's first exhibition hall in Haeundae District, Busan, with one underground floor and four above ground, and a total floor area of 223,537 square meters.

"Based on the top-level construction technology and know-how we have accumulated, we will complete a state-of-the-art, eco-friendly exhibition hall representing Busan safely and flawlessly," an HJ Shipbuilding official said.

Work is set to begin with early-stage construction carried out alongside the detailed design, with full-scale construction scheduled to start around the end of the year after coordination with the Busan city construction office.

The project addresses a shortage of space at Bexco, where the exhibition center's operating rate has surpassed the 60 percent level considered saturation, according to the company.