South Korea's Hanwha builds arms empire as Ukraine, Iran wars spur spending

South Korea's Hanwha builds arms empire as Ukraine, Iran wars spur spending

PHILADELPHIA -- Nearly three-quarters of a century after it was founded by 30-year-old gunpowder engineer Kim Chong-hee, the business that began life as Korea Explosives Co. is leading a charge in South Korea's booming defense industry.

From modest beginnings, Kim went on to become an icon of Korean business, embarking on decades of domestic and, more recently, international expansion to build a vast conglomerate rebaptized in the early 1990s as Hanwha. Now, as the Iran war jangles nerves and raises new questions about defense around the world in the wake of years of conflict in Ukraine, Hanwha is positioning its shipbuilding operations, including those at the Hanwha Philly Shipyard in Philadelphia it acquired in 2024, at the center of a global maritime defense push, leveraging overseas acquisitions to anchor long-term growth.