South Korea’s HD Hyundai Group recently announced the signing of a “Strategic Business Agreement (MOU) to Promote the Modernization of the U.S. Shipbuilding Industry and Enhance Technological Competitiveness” with Germany’s Siemens AG in Gyeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do. This also signifies that Korean shipbuilding companies will introduce global maritime technology resources to accelerate the Korea-U.S. shipbuilding cooperation project “MASGA (Make American Shipbuilding Great Again)”.
According to the agreement, to strengthen the overall competitiveness of the U.S. shipbuilding industry, the two parties will cooperate in areas such as improving the design quality of U.S. shipyards, minimizing engineering risks, enhancing construction quality, and cost savings. They plan to combine HD Hyundai Group’s shipbuilding experience with Siemens’ digital twin technology and business platform technology to guide the digital transformation of production processes in U.S. shipyards.
Furthermore, the two parties plan to phase in technological innovation solutions across the entire shipbuilding industry for U.S. shipyards, including the digital enhancement of ship design, the automation and intelligence of block assembly and erection processes, and the optimization of the data foundation for production, quality, and engineering management.
The collaboration will not only involve technical cooperation but also simultaneously advance training programs for shipbuilding professionals. HD Hyundai Group plans to utilize over 30 Siemens training bases across the United States to implement field-centered practical training. To this end, HD Hyundai Group will dispatch specialized shipbuilding trainers to the U.S. and plans to develop specialized training courses in engineering, digital design, and engineering automation based on industry-academia cooperation with U.S. universities led by HD Hyundai Group, such as the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Additionally, the two parties have decided to jointly explore various opportunities to expand business cooperation and partnerships in the United States.
Previously, HD Hyundai Group and Siemens began collaborating in 2023 to develop a data platform for building smart shipyards. At that time, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, HD Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, and HD Hyundai Samho signed a “Joint Development Project (JDP) agreement for an integrated design-manufacturing innovation platform” with Siemens. They collaborated to build a digital automated production system where all data from ship design to manufacturing is managed on a single platform, reducing inefficiencies caused by lack of data interoperability between processes.
Industry insiders in South Korea stated that this cooperation between HD Hyundai Group and Siemens is expected to accelerate the intelligent transformation of U.S. shipyards, improve quality, reduce costs, minimize production risks, and comprehensively enhance their shipbuilding competitiveness.
An official from HD Hyundai Group said, “To rebuild the U.S. shipbuilding industry, maximizing production efficiency through digital technology and automation technology is key. The combination of HD Hyundai Group’s accumulated shipbuilding technology and Siemens’ digital capabilities will contribute to creating new opportunities for the U.S. shipbuilding industry.”
Previously, to promote the “MASGA” project, HD Hyundai Group signed a “Strategic Partnership Agreement aimed at building U.S. merchant ships” with U.S. company Edison Chouest Offshore (ECO), reaching an agreement to jointly build medium-sized LNG dual-fuel powered container ships, thus establishing a strategic partnership in the merchant ship sector. It also signed a “Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) concerning cooperation on the design and construction of merchant ships and naval vessels” with Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), the largest U.S. naval shipbuilder, reaching a cooperation to jointly build the U.S. Navy’s next-generation logistics support ships (NGLS), thus establishing a strategic partnership in the military vessel sector.
