JAKARTA - Samsung Heavy Industries is expanding its cooperation with the United States shipyard industry. The cooperation includes LNG refueling vessels, autonomous surface vessels, and shipyard labor training centers.
Yonhap quoted Friday, July 24, saying the plan was announced when South Korea and the United States opened the Korea-U.S. Shipbuilding Partnership Center or KUSPC in Washington.
The center was formed to help implement an investment plan worth 150 billion US dollars in the United States shipyard sector. The investment is part of a bilateral trade and investment agreement reached by the two countries last year.
KUSPC is also a platform to encourage the Make American Shipbuilding Great Again or MASGA program. The program is aimed at reviving the US shipbuilding industry.
"Today's opening is a new milestone for the South Korean and US shipyard cooperation project," said Samsung Heavy Industries CEO Choi Sung-an at the opening ceremony on Thursday local time.
Choi said Samsung Heavy Industries will utilize its technological capabilities to drive the revival of the shipbuilding and maritime industries of the two countries.
One of the projects being worked on is a liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering vessel with a capacity of 12,000 cubic meters with Conrad Shipyard.
The ship serves to fill LNG as fuel for other ships. The basic design has obtained principle approval from the American Bureau of Shipping.
The approval is the latest result of the two companies' partnership since December to build LNG refueling vessels.
Samsung Heavy Industries also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Saronic Technologies, an American start-up company that designs and manufactures autonomous surface vessels.
Autonomous surface vessels can carry out some or all of their operations automatically.
Another cooperation was forged with Vigor Marine Group, Samsung Heavy Industries' partner in the field of ship maintenance, repair, and major maintenance.
The two will build a training center in the northwestern United States. The facility will help prepare the welders and ship painters needed for the construction and repair of ships.
Samsung Heavy Industries said the training center will utilize the company's expertise and technology
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