INDUSTRY REPORT dominated by manufacture in the Far East , with the growth of Chinese and South Korean shipbuilding outpacing the West ,” commented TWI .
Due to the sheer increased requirement for import and export commodities , as a result of globalisation , shipbuilding has become an essential strategic industry . Although Europe remains an important market for cruise ship manufacture , the East Asian area dominates shipbuilding with China , Japan and South Korea being the world ’ s top shipbuilding nations .
“ China obtained over half of all shipbuilding orders in 2021 , establishing it as a worldwide shipbuilding powerhouse . Ship destruction is similarly concentrated in Southeast Asia , with Bangladesh , India and Pakistan accounting for almost 90 % of worldwide ship scrapping activities ,” commented Mordor Intelligence .
“ However , the shipbuilding market is fragmented with several players accounting for significant amounts of shares in the market . Some of the prominent companies in the market are Mitsubishi Heavy Industries ; Hyundai Heavy Industries ; China State Ship Building Corporation ; DSME and others ,” it continued .
A consequence of the high level of global outsourcing in the shipbuilding supply chain is that the shipbuilding process necessitates considerable coordination skill : workers need to assemble thousands of different components which have to be correctly manufactured and arrive at the right place at the right time . For example , ships are assembled from up to 550,000 parts ( in the case of complex research vessels ) or 900,000 parts for cruise ships ( SEA Europe , 2017 ).
Shipyards therefore need to possess effective systems as well as management and organisational skills to generate information , develop production plans , control materials and achieve high quality standards in the production of components .
Research and development
Companies are investing heavily in research and development for the innovation of various new and advanced products .
“ For instance , in September 2021 , Hyundai Heavy revealed plans to use about KRW 760 billion ( US $ 660 million ) to invest in future technologies including eco-friendly ships and digital ship technology , smart shipyards and hydrogen infrastructure ,” continued Mordor Intelligence .
Mari4 _ YARD is an EU-funded project that leverages the potential of Internet of Things ( IoT ), mobile and ubiquitous ICT tools , and robotics to develop user-centric solutions for flexible and modular manufacturing and implement a novel ‘ connected ’ shipyard . The projects started in December 2020 and will last until 2024 . It aims to implement a portfolio of worker-centric solutions by relying on collaborative robotics and ubiquitous portable solutions . These will enable “ modular , flexible , reconfigurable and usable solutions targeting the execution of key labour-intensive tasks by preserving industry-specific workers ’
On 22 May 2022 , one 209,000 DWT LNG Dual Fuel Bulk Carrier was delivered to Singapore ship owner Eastern Pacific Shipping Pte . Ltd . ( EPS ) online by two subsidiaries of CSSC .
Austal Vietnam has successfully launched a new high-speed catamaran , built at the company ’ s shipyard in Vung Tau , for the Degage Group of French Polynesia . The vessel is scheduled for delivery in June 2023 .
The global shipbuilding industry is currently dominated by manufacture in the Far East , with the growth of Chinese and South Korean shipbuilding outpacing the West
knowledge , skills and biomechanics health status .” It adopts a twofold strategy : technology-driven and barrier-driven .
The EU RESURGAM project will introduce high-productivity friction stir welding of steel to European shipyards .
“ Many of the challenges faced by small and medium-sized EU shipyards can be addressed by improving their productivity for fabricating new , high-technology vessels and increasing their access to the specialist repair and maintenance market . Friction Stir Welding ( FSW ) is a high integrity , low distortion , environmentally benign , welding technique , which was previously investigated in FP7 project HILDA ( High Integrity Low Distortion Assembly ) and recommended for shipbuilding due to its high quality and suitability for automation ,” explains the project ’ s website .
“ A recent break-through in the tooling material research available for FSW now shows potential to enable this process for welding of steel structures with consistency . Traditionally , it has only been possible to use FSW in aluminium , so the advances in the field represent a huge opportunity to improve the productivity of European shipyards ,” it continued .
RESURGAM will combine FSW with the new tool material to deliver the introduction of low-cost friction stir welding ( FSW ) systems for steel that can be retrofitted to their existing CNC machines and the introduction of AI-enabled , robotic FSW systems capable of making underwater weld repairs .
“ These fabrication and repair capabilities , backed by the secure , digital Industry-4.0 infrastructure and techniques already in widespread use in the automotive and aerospace industries , will facilitate the rapid , coordinated but distributed modular manufacture of ships and watercraft throughout Europe ,” said the project organisers .
Practically , this will allow ships damaged anywhere in the world to have the option of being repaired in place without the need to travel to the nearest dry dock . This will allow ship owners to choose the most suitable yards to conduct their repairs rather than the nearest , and the repairs may be undertaken by yards with no dry dock of their own ( significantly increasing the number of yards able to undertake such work ). All of this will be implemented by European shipyards and naval architects in Europe .
The NH3CRAFT project aims to develop technologies for the highvolume storage and transportation of ammonia as a fuel for ships . It
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