HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Appeals KDDX Security Penalty Decision in Shipbuilding News 15/06/2026 Hanwha Ocean has been effectively selected as the preferred bidder for the 7.8 trillion Korean won-scale Korea Destroyer Next Generation (KDDX) detailed design and lead ship construction project. Meanwhile, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries has appealed a court’s decision to dismiss its request for a provisional injunction to prohibit the application of security penalty points. According to the defense industry on the 12th, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries submitted an appeal to the Seoul Central District Court the previous day regarding the court’s rejection of its injunction request. Earlier, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries had filed the injunction after protesting the Defense Acquisition Program Administration’s (DAPA) decision to extend the security penalty points by one year until December of this year. However, the court dismissed the request on the 5th. The security penalty points originated from an incident where nine HD Hyundai Heavy Industries employees leaked conceptual design data for the KDDX from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, Hanwha Ocean’s predecessor, between 2012 and 2015. Eight employees received final guilty verdicts in November 2022, and one in December 2023. DAPA has applied a 1.2-point security penalty during bidding based on this case. Initially, DAPA had stated that the penalty would end in November of last year, based on the verdicts of the first eight employees. However, in September of last year, DAPA decided to extend the penalty until December of this year, citing the final employee’s guilty verdict. As a result, although HD Hyundai Heavy Industries led Hanwha Ocean by approximately 0.6 points in technical scores, the security penalty caused Hanwha Ocean to surpass HD Hyundai Heavy Industries by 0.5867 points in total score. Hanwha Ocean is now set to be designated as the preferred negotiator. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries argues that DAPA’s