South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean has suspended work at its Okpo shipyard after a fatal accident on Friday.
Hanwha said in an exchange filing that the incident occurred on 12 January and production stopped on Monday.
It did not give any details of what had happened.
Local reports and people working with the yard said a gas exploded at ship rudder fabrication shop number two, killing an employee from a subcontractor company who had been working on plates.
A gas leak is understood to have occurred from a line during grinding work on a rudder block.
The 28-year-old Korean worker who died is reported to have been hit by pieces of flying metal and thrown more than 10 metres by the blast.
Police are said to be investigating the circumstances.
Hanwha Ocean said production at the Geoje Island facility is scheduled to resume after the investigation determines the cause of the incident and countermeasures can be prepared.
South Korean conglomerate Hanwha, which had not previously been in shipbuilding, completed its buyout of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in May 2023, renaming it Hanwha Ocean and embarking on a $1.5bn exercise to grow and transform its company.
Kwon Hyek-woong was put at the helm as chief executive.
The new management team has been cautious in taking orders but has started to be more active in berth discussions in recent months, shipowners and brokers said.
The shipbuilder is sitting on contracts for just over 100 vessels, most of which are container ships, LNG carriers and very large ammonia carriers, along with its naval work.
