On July 17, Korea's largest shipbuilding group HD Hyundai inaugurated the "Ship Technology Research Institute" at the HD Hyundai Global R&D Centre in Banqiao to prepare for further capture of the future ship market.
The Institute for Ship Technology is an expanded and restructured version of the Ship Technology Center of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries' Special Ship Division, and will be organised under the Institute for Future Technology of HD Korea Shipbuilding & Marine. The Institute for Future Technology is a 'control tower' organisation that oversees HD Hyundai's R&D field, aiming to ensure the safety of core source technologies for the future and to provide the necessary applied technologies for HD Hyundai's main business.
By establishing the Ship Technology Institute, HD Hyundai hopes to have a technology integration system that will enable it to respond more quickly to the rapidly changing marine market. In particular, it will be able to quickly combine electrification, digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies owned by the Future Technology Institute to get a head start on future ship technologies.
Currently, the Future Technology Institute is independently developing the drive (an electric power conversion device for ship propulsion) that is the core of an electric propulsion ship, while working to advance the world's first AI solution for merchant ships.
HD Hyundai will use the newly established Ship Technology Research Institute as a base to promote the three core strategies of the shipbuilding business, namely ship electrification, automated ship research and development, and enhancement of the competitiveness of export ships, in order to gain an edge in the global shipbuilding market, and will continue to actively recruit highly qualified professionals in the shipbuilding field.
In this way, HD Hyundai plans to develop models of export ships while developing next-generation ships for the navy, and to make a strong push into the global naval defence market. According to the Janes Market Forecast, a British military magazine, the number of ships expected to be ordered in the next 10 years from this year will reach about 1,100 ships worth 113 trillion won.
HD Hyundai Heavy Industries has been recognised for its shipbuilding technology since the development of Korea's first warship, the Ulsan, in 1975, and has so far built and delivered 106 ships, including 18 overseas ships to New Zealand, Peru and the Philippines.
In addition, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries announced the signing of a ship maintenance service agreement (MSRA) with US Naval Supply Systems Command (USNSC) on 11th July, becoming the first Korean shipbuilder to sign a ship maintenance, repair and operation (MRO) agreement with USNSC, thus entering the US MRO market.
MSRA is an agreement between the U.S. government and private shipyards to provide MRO services for U.S. ships. The MSRA must be signed beforehand to participate in MRO projects for ships in service in the U.S. Under the agreement, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries will be eligible to bid for MRO projects for support ships belonging to the U.S. Naval Supply Systems Command and U.S. Navy combat ships in the next five years.
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