The moves follow the opening of the Korea-U.S. Shipbuilding Partnership Center in Washington, D.C., this week. The center is expected to serve as a key platform for Korea’s participation in efforts to rebuild the U.S. shipbuilding industry.
Hanwha Ocean signed a professional services contract with Leidos Gibbs & Cox, a U.S. naval ship design firm, to jointly design a global strategic sealift vessel.
The vessel is a dual-use ship designed for commercial logistics in peacetime and rapid transport of military supplies in a contingency. Hanwha Ocean also signed separate agreements on workforce training and supply chain development with U.S. partners.
HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering signed a contract with Siemens Digital Industries Software to introduce a next-generation marine platform that connects ship design, production, supply chain management, quality control and maintenance through a single 3D data-based system.
The company also plans to build a virtual shipyard and develop a “physical AI” shipyard where robots and autonomous production equipment carry out parts of the shipbuilding process.
Samsung Heavy Industries received approval in principle from the American Bureau of Shipping for a 12,000-cubic-meter LNG bunkering vessel jointly developed with Conrad Shipyard.
The company also agreed to cooperate with U.S. unmanned surface vessel startup Saronic Technologies on autonomous navigation, AI software and automated shipyard processes.
Samsung Heavy Industries also signed an agreement with Vigor Marine Group to establish a training center for welding and painting workers and plans to work with U.S. universities on virtual training systems for shipbuilding workers.
Industry officials expect Korea-U.S. shipbuilding cooperation to expand further as Korean shipbuilders combine their construction technologies and productivity with U.S. production bases.
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