The Philippines is 7,641 islands, one of the world's largest sources of seafarers and — by the OECD's count — the fourth-largest shipbuilding nation in 2022. Its yards at Subic and Cebu train hull welders, fitters, pipefitters, outfitters and painters at scale. We recruit them for new-build yards, repair yards and drydocks in Europe, the Gulf and Australia — pre-tested in Manila to your WPS and class parameters — formal coding and class approval where required at your yard — and employed directly by your yard.
Shipbuilding is not a new industry in the Philippines; it is a core one. The former Hanjin yard at Subic Bay produced up to two million gross tonnes a year at its peak and is being revived by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Philippines, which cut steel on its first 250-metre product carrier in September 2025 and launched it — the Orion Jade — in July 2026; HD Hyundai is scaling employment in Subic and partnering with TESDA to develop the skilled workforce full-scale shipbuilding requires. In Balamban, Cebu — the country's shipbuilding capital — Tsuneishi builds bulk carriers and Austal builds aluminium fast ferries and naval vessels. Add Gulf repair yards where Filipino crews have docked ships for thirty years, and a seafaring tradition that means the fitter welding a hull block has often sailed on one.
What that produces for a European or Gulf yard is a trades pool that already works to class, to procedures and to block schedules — and that arrives in crews, not individuals.
Your yard's welding engineer or production manager watches live from the yard or on site in Makati and interviews the same day. Candidates are briefed on climate, housing and docking rhythm before interview.
New-build yards in Northern Europe and the Mediterranean recruit block-assembly crews and outfitters; repair yards and drydocks in the Gulf and Europe recruit docking crews used to two-week turnarounds; offshore and naval yards recruit to their own security and standard requirements. We staff all three; the Philippine side — employer accreditation at the relevant MWO, approved job order(s), waves against your schedule — is the same.
Each country guide states the permit route and timeline; Germany and Australia have dedicated welder and fabricator guides. The route decides who qualifies — the EU experience routes and single permits, Gulf sponsorship, Australia's Skills in Demand visa with skills assessment — and we tell you at feasibility which candidates fit.
Hull and structural welders (FCAW, SMAW, GMAW, SAW; all positions), ship fitters and plate fabricators, pipefitters and pipe welders, outfitters, marine electricians and ELV/automation technicians, blasters and coating applicators, scaffolders and riggers, crane operators, ship carpenters and joiners for interior outfitting, insulators, marine engine mechanics, HVAC fitters. Foremen and supervisors with yard experience are common in the candidate base.
We pre-test in Manila to your welding procedure specification and the positions your class society requires — ISO 9606-1, AWS D1.1 — which reduces the failure risk; the formal welder qualification and any ABS/DNV/LR/BV approval remain required and are completed at your yard on the same parameters. Pipe in 6G/HL045 where you need it; fitters on plate assembly from drawings; painters on surface preparation and DFT.
Both. New-build crews from Subic and Cebu (bulk carriers, product tankers, aluminium fast ferries, offshore structures); repair and drydock crews from Gulf repair yards and Philippine ship-repair facilities — used to short, intense dockings.
It depends on the country: the EU skilled-worker and experience routes (Germany), single permits and residence-for-employment routes across the EU, sponsorship in the Gulf, the Skills in Demand visa with TRA skills assessment in Australia. Each country guide states the route; we say at feasibility which candidates qualify.
Yes — we can mobilise mixed crews of forty to two hundred across trades; on the Philippine side that means employer accreditation at the relevant MWO and approved job order(s), mobilised in waves against your production schedule.
Your yard — directly. We recruit through our DMW-licensed agency in Manila and coordinate the destination-country process; we never employ or lease the workers.