KSOE opens European R&D centre

With the European R&D centre serving as a base, KSOE will expand its global technology cooperation network and has already met with RWTH Aachen University to initiate a joint research program on a future-leading propulsion system for large ships running on green energy, such as hydrogen and ammonia.

Yonhap News Agency reports that KSOE has been ramping up efforts to establish a global R&D network in a bid to become the world’s leading shipyard. In 2019, it set up a R&D centre in India.

Having shifted into a holding structure with KSOE at the centre, HHI Group’s shipbuilding sector includes Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries and Hyundai Mipo Dockyard.

KSOE has obtained orders for at least 70 ships worth $7.1 billion this year, about 41 percent of its $17.44 billion yearly target.

In December 2021, Korean Register issued two separate Approvals in Principles to KSOE, Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hyundai Mipo Dockyard for their designs of an ammonia-fuelled ammonia carrier and an ammonia-fuelled bunker vessel.

Hyundai Heavy Industries celebrates its 50^th anniversary this year. Kwon Oh-gap, chairman and CEO, said that the key factor to survival is technological competitiveness. “When we possess unrivalled technology that no one else has, we can be a sustainable company.” The group is planning a name change to HD Hyundai.