Trips from Korea, Trips to Korea, and Korean Vans for CPSP?

You knew that the Koreans wouldn't stay quiet long. Despite Mark Carney’s big visit AND the Canada-Korea Defence Roadshow passing just a few weeks ago, Team Korea continues to remain active, and so do we.

The Republic of Korea Navy has confirmed that Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Kang Dong-gil will make an official visit to Canada from the 20th to the 24th where he plans to attend the Halifax International Security Forum, the largest international security forum in North America. Here he will '“interact with key Canadian figures. He will also visit the Royal Canadian Navy's Atlantic Fleet Command and ships to support bilateral defense and defense industry cooperation activities.”

It's not terribly shocking given its for HISF, however I thought it was keen to note. No clue if he will be joined by amyone else, however given the current enviornment I expect we'll here some more over the next few days. You can find the planned itinerary for the event here if you're curious!

He isn't the only one going on a trip though. Minister of Industry and Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions Mélanie Joly and Secretary of State (Defence Procurement) Stephen Fuhr will also be in Korea next week to visit officials amd tour Hanwhas yard at Goeje.

Both of them missed the APEC trip, though as we reported at the time they were scheduled to visit sometime before the end of the year. They mark the last of the major officials that are secheduled to bisit Korea ahead of a decision on CPSP.

It will also cap off the major visits between the two finalists in CPSP. Both TKMS and Hanwha have had the suite of Ministers and officials visit their yards directly, inclusing Prime Minister Mark Carney. The expectation is that a decision will be made over the Winter slowdown, and an announcement made somwtime in the Spring, maybe Summer.

CANSEC is a date I have heard tossed around, given the significance and they desire to usually have a big announcement take place at the event. Both parties have received an RFP for CPSP. Both companies have until March 2nd to provide responses.

In the meantime everyone has been in a rush to recruit partners and finalize their respective economic packages. Hanwha has taken an esrly lead in locking down partners, with over twenty confirmed and dozens more rumored. TKMS has taken a more quiet approach, not announcing any as of yet, very likely waiting for the right time.

Korean media though did give us a bit of a look into what the Canadian government might be after. Korean sourcess report that Canadian officials inquired about the possibility of Hyundai setting up an Automotive plant in the country.

While Koreans sources say that nothing was officially requested or proposed, the idea was thrown out by government officials. Canada is currently being hit hard by automotive tarrifs placed on it by President Trump. In the last few months we have seen the temporary shuttering of several plants, including Stellantis in Brampton and GMs CAMI assembly plant.

CAMI was doomed with or without tarrifs but it doesnt matter. Canada is on the hunt to replace these losses as both GM and Stellantis remain uninformative about the future of these plants. Could the solution be in friendship though?

General Motors (GM) and Hyundai have a strategic partnership to explore collaboration across various areas, including co-developing and producing vehicles, manufacturing, and clean energy technologies. The two have already annlunced their intent to coproduce several new vehicles together.

While most of these models are destined for Central and South America, a new Commercial Electric Van for the North American market is also in the works, not to dissimilar to the Brightdrop vans produced at CAMI. Could Hyundai leverage these existing assets as part of their big for CPSP? Maybe. It's fsr to esrly to tell and the dynamics of the automotive industry are complex.

Still, its very fun to talk about! It's also an interesting idea. Hyundai and Hanwha have engaged with General Motors as part of CPSP. Its not out of the realm of possibility that this might have been discussed. The German side, if you saw our writeup on TKMS CEO Oliver Burkhard, also brought up this notion of automotive being used as a bargaining chip in CPSP.

Coincidence? Probably, but its still really fun to think about! We should be hearing a lot more from both sides over the winter, both in terms of partners and their economic packages. Needless to say, if rumors pan out, things are gonna get really fun, really fast!