South Korea’s container shipping major Hyundai Merchant Marine and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering have joined forces on the research, development and innovation in the field of smart ship technologies.
Under a Memorandum of Understanding, the parties would conduct research on real-time service system based on IoT (Internet of Things), design on-shore platforms for optimised fleet operation, develop automated warehousing systems for ship materials and development economic navigation solutions.
HMM said it plans to promote the innovation of smart ship technology “under way of directly reflecting and testing operational data to its own container vessels.”
The company added that certain smart ship solutions related to optimised ship operation have already been completed and will be applied to seven out of twelve 23,000 TEU mega containerships ordered from DSME in 2018. The ships are scheduled to be sequentially delivered from April 2020.
“Joining forces between HMM and DSME will create a huge synergy,” an HMM official said, adding that the company “will preemptively respond to both environmental regulations and digitisation through operating 23,000 TEU ships outfitted with smart ship technology.”