Hanwha Aerospace halts all domestic production lines for safety inspection after Daejeon blast

Hanwha Aerospace has suspended production lines at all its domestic facilities — except for select essential processes — and launched a special safety inspection and employee safety education program. The measures, overseen by site managers and safety officers at each location, are scheduled to run through Friday.

It is the first time since the company's integrated entity was established in 2023 that Hanwha Aerospace has halted production lines across multiple sites simultaneously. The shutdown is aimed at eliminating risks similar to the accident that occurred at the Daejeon facility on Sunday. The company plans to use the occasion to develop and implement a comprehensive, high-intensity safety reform package.

Nine facilities nationwide will suspend operations for two days for special safety inspections and employee safety education: the Daejeon, North Chungcheong Province Boeun, and South Jeolla Province Yeosu sites, which produce propellants and propellant charges; the Changwon 1, 2 and 3 plants in South Gyeongsang Province, which manufacture K-9 self-propelled howitzers, armored vehicles and aircraft engines; and R&D campuses in Daejeon, Pangyo and Asan.

All facilities will conduct comprehensive checks covering fire and explosion hazards, serious accident risk factors, unsafe conditions and facilities, risk assessments, and past accident cases. The inspections will include re-examinations of machinery, working environments and structures. Improvement measures taken in response to risk assessment findings over the past three years, as well as the implementation status of recurrence-prevention plans, will also be reviewed.

Particularly at the Daejeon, Boeun and Yeosu sites, which handle explosives, inspectors will examine all processes, including protective equipment by room, grounding conditions, temperature and humidity levels, tool management, and the aging of safety equipment. Storage facilities and the management of waste explosives will also be checked. Emergency response drills based on each room's emergency scenarios will be conducted as well.

To achieve zero safety accidents at the Daejeon, Boeun and Yeosu sites, Hanwha Aerospace has set a policy of unmanned automation for propellant production and handling processes and has begun a review. While some high-risk processes have already been automated or are under construction, the company plans to extend unmanned automation to processes previously deemed lower-risk after further review.

Hanwha Aerospace will also conduct special safety education for employees Thursday and Friday. Each site will hold sessions covering domestic and overseas cases of similar accidents and training on workers' right to stop work in the face of imminent danger, and organizations will revise their emergency response plans.

Hanwha Group has also decided to carry out detailed environmental and safety inspections at all domestic and overseas facilities of its petrochemical affiliates, including Hanwha Corp., Hanwha Solutions, Hanwha TotalEnergies, Hanwha Impact and YNCC. Each company will form a self-inspection team led by its chief executive by June 10 to conduct comprehensive reviews of on-site work safety management, production processes and environmental compliance.

Meanwhile, the Daejeon branch of the Ministry of Employment and Labor announced Thursday that it is conducting search and seizure operations at Hanwha Aerospace's Seoul headquarters and Daejeon facility in connection with the explosion at the Daejeon site.

A total of 55 personnel — including labor inspectors from the ministry and police from the Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency — were deployed for the search and seizure.

The ministry and police plan to secure materials related to the cause of the explosion, including procedural documents and blueprints for the propellant cleaning process, as well as records related to Hanwha Aerospace's safety and health management system. They will then closely examine whether adequate safety measures were in place during propellant cleaning and other work at the site of the explosion.