Swedish ship parts firm expands Subic facility

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT, Philippines—A ship parts manufacturer based in Europe is expanding its production facilities here to carve out a share in the huge shipbuilding industry in Asia.

Carolina Agoo, administration and financial manager of Polarmarine Inc., said her company would eventually transfer production facilities in Sweden and Russia to this freeport because of its “strategic location and the [availability of] English-speaking workers here.”

Polarmarine, a Swedish firm that started operations here in 1996, is among the pioneer locators in the Subic Bay Freeport.

It has 86 workers, most of whom used to work in the Subic Naval Base and who were trained by the US Navy, Agoo said.

“With this expansion plan, we aim to lower the cost of our products since we will be saving more from freight costs. We will import from our suppliers in Asia, and export products to customers in Asia,” Agoo said.

She said shipbuilding-related industries are “now being concentrated in the Asian region, and more shipbuilding component assembly operations are now being transferred to Asia.”

Polarmarine started this month to coordinate with the Subic-based Korean shipbuilder, Hanjin Heavy Industries Corp.-Philippines, for an arrangement to supply sonic horns, she said.

Initially, Polarmarine produced “Polar Jet,” a programmable multinozzle tank-cleaning equipment designed to clean difficult-to-reach parts of slop tanks, wing tanks and under-stringer platforms in conventional tankers.

Polarmarine later ventured into assembly of sonic horns used in shipyards, for which it acquired a 484-square-meter building here for its assembly facility.

“This is in preparation for our plan to transfer production from Malmo, Sweden, to Subic,” Agoo said.

She said the company sees a 20-percent increase in production and employment in its first year of full operations here and an additional 50 percent in succeeding years.