Hyundai Samho Middle School Begins Joint Development of Next-Generation Shipbuilding CAD Platform

Collaborating with Germany's Siemens to Build Future Digital Shipyard

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Jae-kyung] Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries (CEO Kim Hyung-kwan) has declared the development of a ‘next-generation shipbuilding dedicated CAD platform’ and is embarking on securing cutting-edge technology for building future digital shipyards.

On the 8th, Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries and Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering held a ‘joint development project agreement ceremony for the development of a next-generation design CAD platform’ with Siemens Germany.

About 20 officials attended the ceremony, including the agreement parties: Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries CEO Kim Hyung-kwan, Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering CDO Lee Tae-jin, Siemens Germany’s Global Development Head Robert Haberluck, and Siemens Korea CEO Oh Byung-joon.

Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, and Siemens pledged to successfully complete the project over four years from this year through 2025 by combining each company’s technology and know-how.

Both sides plan to collaborate to establish the concept of a next-generation shipbuilding dedicated CAD and work together to technically realize it.

In particular, Siemens is reportedly showing great interest in this project to the extent of considering establishing a product development headquarters (R&D) near Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries’ headquarters in Mokpo or Busan.

Currently, domestic and international shipyards in China, the United States, and the EU are introducing various design and production platforms to transition to digital shipyards. However, there is no shipbuilding-dedicated data platform suitable for the assembly process and change management of current shipyards, resulting in mere simple computerization or semi-automation despite huge investments.

Accordingly, the three Korean shipbuilding companies under Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering have initiated joint next-generation CAD research with four global developers aiming to develop a shipbuilding-dedicated data platform capable of ‘Digital Twin.’ After development is completed, group evaluations will be conducted, and expansion to the three group shipbuilding companies will be considered.

Kim Hyung-kwan, CEO of Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, emphasized the importance of this project, stating, “Now is the optimal time for R&D on shipbuilding dedicated CAD to promote connected and predictable digital shipyards for the three group shipbuilding companies,” and added, “Successfully completing digital transformation to overcome fierce competition with Chinese shipyards will be a century-long foundation for Korea’s shipbuilding industry.”

Meanwhile, Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries plans to progressively implement a visible shipyard by next year, an optimized connected and predictable factory by 2026, and an intelligent autonomous shipyard by 2030.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.