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HD Hyundai Group's shipyard.

According to foreign media reports, HD Hyundai Group, South Korea's largest shipbuilding group, recently held a ceremony to unveil the Naval Ship Research Institute at its global R&D center in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, with more than 50 relevant personnel in attendance. The establishment of the institute is seen as another important measure for HD Hyundai Group to accelerate the integration of technical resources and effectively deal with practical problems, aiming to seize the competitive advantage in the future ship market.

It is reported that the Naval Ship Research Institute was reorganized from the Ship Technology Center of the Special Ship Division of Hyundai Heavy Industries under HD Hyundai Group. The main function of the center is to provide application guarantee and safety supervision for the development of future core technologies. The Naval Ship Research Institute is positioned by South Korea as the "cradle of the world's leading naval technology" and will focus on three aspects.

The first is to master future ship technologies. The Naval Ship Research Institute will target the three core strategies of HD Hyundai Group in the ship business, namely, ship electrification, unmanned ship research and development, and strengthening the competitiveness of ship exports. At the same time, in order to ensure the core technological capabilities of the future navy, the institute will promote the establishment of a technology fusion system, and develop more practical new technologies based on existing electrification, digitalization and artificial intelligence technologies to better adapt to the dynamic development of the navy.

The second is to cultivate talents in the shipbuilding field. HD Hyundai Group plans to continue to expand the team of designers and research engineers based on the Naval Ship Research Institute. In addition to establishing educational cooperation with universities such as Seoul National University in South Korea and the University of Michigan in the United States to attract external talents, HD Hyundai Group also accelerates internal talent training by expanding the number of recruits, setting up integrated courses, and organizing job training.

The third is to enter the global maritime defense market. Relying on the Naval Ship Research Institute, HD Hyundai Group plans to establish regional overseas centers in the United States, Australia, East Asia and South American countries and regions through cooperation with overseas partners to establish bases, promote technology transfer, and achieve supporting standardization, and gradually build a global supply network. According to the "Military Industry Blueprint 2030" released by HD Hyundai Group at the end of May this year, by 2030, South Korea's military ship exports will reach 3 trillion won (about 2.2 billion US dollars).

In recent years, HD Hyundai Group has stepped up technology integration, continuously optimized internal R&D capabilities, and promoted the layout of the global merchant ship and naval vessel market. In November 2023, HD Hyundai Group integrated the electrification research organizations operated by various subsidiaries into an electrification center to accelerate the electrification of core businesses.

Since 2021, HD Hyundai Group has implemented the "Future Shipbuilding Strategy" to gradually transform into a smart shipyard in three stages. The first stage is to build a visual shipyard by December 2023; the second stage is to build an interconnected and predictable optimized factory by 2026; the third stage is to transform into a 100% digital twin smart autonomous shipyard by 2030.

At present, HD Hyundai Group has built more than 100 ships and is also responsible for the basic design of the latest Korean-type Aegis destroyer. According to forecasts, the group will reach its peak delivery in recent years in 2025, with an annual delivery of about 131 ships. Some comments pointed out that the group's focus on the development of smart ships reflects that the Korean shipbuilding industry is adopting the "talent training + digital transformation" model to meet the upcoming new wave of orders.

HD Hyundai Group Vice Chairman Chung Ki-sun said that the newly established Naval Ship Research Institute will help South Korea become a global military power. However, people in the South Korean shipbuilding industry said that the decline in shipbuilding efficiency, the intensification of worker shortages, and the escalation of labor disputes have made the entire industry face uncertainty. How South Korea's largest shipbuilding group will play a role in the future still needs further observation. (Guo Bingxin)

(China National Defense News)