WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a four day whirlwind visit to Japan and South Korea, Pennsylvania Senator Dave McCormick said one of the main topics of the trip was about encouraging more investment in Pennsylvania.
“Japan and South Korea have been big contributors,” said the Senator. “Nippon of course the Japanese steel company, in partnership purchased US Steel. That’s been a huge benefit to Pittsburgh not only to save jobs but bring in thousands of new jobs and a new mill that will the groundbreaking will be in early 2027.”
In South Korea, the Senator visited a Hanwha’s massive shipyard, where 30-thousand workers build dozens of ships each year. He spoke with officials about their five-billion-dollar infrastructure plan for Philadelphia’s historic shipyard.
“I’m seeing the kinds of opportunities it will bring to workers in Pennsylvania,” said the Senator in a video message at the shipyard he shared on the platform X. “A ton of opportunities to grow our business, our shipbuilding business in Philadelphia. It’s going to be a great step forward.”
Although Pittsburgh and Philadelphia got a lot of attention on the trip, the Senator said northwest Pennsylvania was not left out of these investment conversations. We asked him specifically about Erie’s shipbuilding capabilities.
“Trying to figure out the right potential investor there is something the folks in Erie and my team and others have been very focused on because the shipbuilding activities there have to be conducive with the size of the shipyard but also the depths of the great lakes and also the fact that whatever is built there would have to stay in the great lakes,” said the Senator. “So it’s about finding the right capacity for shipbuilding there. It could be components for bigger ships that are built in other shipyards or it could be ships dedicated to the great lakes. There’s a lot of different possibilities but it was mentioned and talked about in a number of the meetings we had. It’s just a matter of stimulating interest in the people we talked to and saying hey here’s another alternative you might want to consider.”
The trip also focused on strengthening security partnerships to counter China.
