Korea Pledges Full Supports for Shipyards

 

Yoon Sang-Jick, Minister of Trade, Industry, and Energy (MOTIE) of Korea, held a meeting to check pending issues faced by Korean shipbuilding and offshore plant industry at Seoul Palace Hotel recently.

The meeting was intended to examine current status of overseas and home industry and seek response proposals. Some 20 presidents from allied organizations attended, such as MOTIE, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF), the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MEL), shipbuilding and offshore plant industry, the Society of Naval Architects of Korea, Korea Research Institute of Ship & Ocean Engineering (KRISO), Korea National Oil Corporation, Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS), the Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM), Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-sure) and so on.

After Minister Yoon released “Development plans for offshore plant industry” in November last year, the government has carried forward with major political tasks such as establishment of Deepsea Offshore Engineering Basin, R&D center for offshore equipment, improvement plan for S&M yards’ competitiveness, MOU agreement with Greece for shipbuilding cooperation and so on.
Yoon pledged the ministry’s full support for the country to retain and develop its status as world’s No.1 power house in partnership with MOF, MEL and allied governmental departments and organizations by providing skilled workforces, technology foundation, ship financing and so on.

Firstly, the government will ?put efforts in KOGAS ordering new LNG carriers which are planned to put into operation in 2017 and urge shipyards to be supplied Korean-made core equipment, ?encourage revitalization of offshore plant service market with providing a disused located in the East Sea as a test facility of drillship drilling system, ? allows table provision of ship financing from KEXIM and K-sure so that Korean yards would not have difficulty winning new orders.

In addition, it pledged ?close cooperation with MOF to expand ship modernization projects and support S&M yards to secure workloads, ?expansion of workforce training programs in partnership with MEL that a shortage problem in skilled workers for design engineering and high end welding technology would be resolved.

Also, ?MOTIE will promote industrial infrastructure with successfully finishing ongoing projects as Deepsea Offshore Engineering Basin, Test Bed for Deepwater Resource Transportation and Production and so on, with working towards technology development for deepwater and arctic region resources which are foreseen as future offshore plant market.

Lastly, Yoon plans to focus the ministry’s capability in improving domestic newbuilding capacity through market analysis, technology exchanges with expanding and organizing a consultative group with industry, academics and institutes. Up to this time, the government has run a technology consultative group where shipbuilders, industry and associations are participated but organizations from academics and institutes will be added to the group for development of shipbuilding and offshore plant industry.

Attendees from the industry appealed for difficulty in securing a track record of domestic equipment and deficiency of skilled workers and called for the governmental supports of next generation technology development, creation of domestic demands through new orders for coastal ship and so on. At the same time, they pledged its full efforts in improving competitiveness through technology innovation and win-win partnership.

MOTIE