Our Yard Is Full, So We Asked for Help Building Ship Deck Houses

HJ Heavy Industries places orders for eight deck houses with Daesun Shipbuilding

First win-win outsourcing collaboration on ship deck house blocks

HJ Heavy Industries (CEO Yoo Sangcheol) has outsourced the construction of deck houses (residential units for ships) to another shipyard.

A deck house is the superstructure of a vessel that houses the wheelhouse, navigation equipment, cabins, offices, and various amenities. This is the first time that the two companies, both leading mid-sized shipbuilders in the Busan region, have collaborated on deck house construction.

HJ Heavy Industries announced on the 10th that it is subcontracting the construction of deck houses for eight 7,900 TEU-class eco-friendly container vessels, already ordered by a European shipowner, to Daesun Shipbuilding.

Officials from HJ Heavy Industries and Daesun Shipbuilding gathered to collaborate on the contract manufacturing of living quarters. (Back row, 11th from the left: Yoo Sangchul, CEO of HJ Heavy Industries; 12th: Kwon Mincheol, CEO of Daesun Shipbuilding)

The size of a deck house, where crew members work and live during long voyages, varies depending on the type and size of the vessel, but the deck house ordered this time by HJ Heavy Industries is comparable in scale to a 10-story building.

While most block construction processes carried out at shipyards typically focus on function and productivity, deck houses must also take into account steering efficiency and the living convenience of the crew.

This block accommodates various control systems and high-value navigation and communication equipment such as radar, compasses, and satellite navigation systems (GPS). It also contains a large number of pipes and cables, making the construction process highly complex.

HJ Heavy Industries had previously produced deck houses in-house, but its workshops at the Yeongdo Shipyard have reached full capacity due to the construction of eco-friendly commercial vessels and special-purpose ships such as naval vessels, as well as the recent award of a U.S. Navy MRO project. To focus on core work and enhance production flexibility, the company decided to procure deck houses externally and has been pursuing a subcontract with Daesun Shipbuilding, whose technical capabilities in ship deck house construction are well established.

Of the eight deck houses ordered by HJ Heavy Industries last year, the first block was delivered last month after a lighting ceremony that also served as a quality review. The lighting ceremony is a procedure to verify that the electrical and instrumentation systems, power supply, and major equipment within the deck house operate stably and in accordance with the design.

An HJ Heavy Industries official said, "This external production of deck houses is expected not only to increase sales for both companies and create a virtuous cycle in the shipbuilding ecosystem, but also to generate various positive effects for the regional economy," adding, "We will expand our collaboration to maximize the synergies of cooperative production."

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