Korea fights to retain top spot in shipbuilding

South Korean shipyards continue to dominate the world shipbuilding industry and, despite signs that other Asian countries, China in particular, are challenging Korea?s supremacy, they are confident of retaining their supremacy for another twenty years. This will be achieved by means of continued drive towards efficiency, automation and high-tech investment.

Strategy

Korea is likely to remain the world?s leading shipbuilding country until at least 2015 with a 40% market share according to Ms. Hong Sung In, a research fellow of Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade. Hong said that Japan would take 30% of the market, China 20% and Europe 10%. Korean shipbuilders, however, should establish a strategy to meet the challenge from China by improving labour and management relationships, supply and demand of raw materials, and enhance international cooperation.

The researcher added that the ratio of high value-added ships from Korean shipbuilders such as LNG carriers, very large container carriers and offshore rigs would increase to 60% in 2015, up from 35% at present. Ship completions would reach 17million GT in 2015 compared to the current 13.6million GT while employment would drop from today?s 65,000 to between 50,000 and 55,000 in 2015 thanks to productivity increases.

This upbeat prediction is echoed by others, such as Jung Seong Leep, CEO of Daewoo Shipbuilding, who maintains that Korea will be ahead of Chinese shipbuilders until at least 2013. Lee Song Deuk, director of Korea Shipbuilders Association, is even more optimistic believing Korean shipbuilders will be ahead of China for at least another 30 years.

This claim is based on the fact that shipbuilding technology is not acquired easily and that it has taken Korea about 30 years to develop a state of the art industry where efficiency has been optimized.

New shipbuilding methods

Some of the yards have developed new shipbuilding methods such as Hanjin Heavy Industries with the development of a SKID loading method to minimize the period a newbuilding has to occupy a dock. This was necessitated because Hanjin has a relatively low crane capacity limiting its ability to fabricate large blocks. To overcome this problem, the shipbuilder assembles ultra large blocks weighing up to 1,500 tonnes on land and moves them to the building dock using floating cranes. A spokesman for the shipbuilder told The Motor Ship that this method reduces construction time by 20%.

The most impressive shipbuilding technology developed by Hanjin is the ?DAM? method.

In order to overcome the limitations of its building dock, which has a maximum length of 300 metres, the shipbuilder has solved the problem by building ships in two halves, floating out the bow and stern sections and welding them together using the ?DAM? method which, essentially, is a sophisticated cofferdam. In this way, Hanjin is able to build the 8,100TEU containerships it has on order which have a length of 325 metres.

Using innovative technology, the Busan-based shipbuilder has also shortened construction time by building deckhouses as a single block instead of three to four smaller blocks. In addition, Hanjin implemented the tandem methodology this year thereby achieving further improvements in productivity and shorter building times.

Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world?s largest shipbuilder, will build a 105,000DWT tanker on land this year, the first time this has been done in Korea. HHI surprised many of its competing shipyards by announcing that it had developed a method of constructing ships on land which will allow large-sized ships to be built on land rather than in a dock, completely disproving the preconceived notion that ships can only be built and launched from docks.

Super Lifting

This new on-ground shipbuilding methodology involves building mega-sized blocks, lifting these blocks by cranes, referred to as ?super lifting?, joining them together and skidding the completed hull onto a barge lying alongside a quay. The vessel is subsequently launched by submerging the barge. What this means in practice is that, compared to traditional shipbuilding method, the on-ground method shortens construction time by three to four months while creating a safer working environment.

STX has been using the semi-tandem shipbuilding methodology whereby it has, simultaneously under construction in its dry-dock, two ships side by side with two more partially completed vessels following behind. Last year, the shipbuilder launched 20 ships at a dock and aims to float out 24 ships this year.

A spokesman of the Jinhae-based shipbuilder told The Motor Ship that it completes 90% of the shipbuilding process after 35 days in the dock. In addition, the shipbuilder has shortened the outfitting period from 75 days down to 65 days, leading to productivity increase of more than 20 percent.

The shipbuilder also has introduced so-called ?insert methodology? which involves building large blocks on land which are then moved to the building dock while, at the same time, another part of ship is being built in the dock. To further improve productivity, the shipbuilder recently set up Jinhae Machinery which will construct large blocks and ship equipment.

Hyundai Samho Shipyard in South Korea has established an automatic weather observation system (AWS) to improve production efficiency through providing detailed weather information. This will enable the Mokpo-based shipbuilder to cope better with the vagaries of weather conditions and improve outdoor works such as coating and sea-trials.

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) successfully completed the development of automatic blasting equipment that has proved effective in preventing work-related diseases. The development of this blasting equipment started in September last year and, following several tests of the prototype and subsequent improvements, the shipbuilder is now using the new equipment for blasting the main decks of vessels being constructed in No. 1 & 2 docks.