Chung Kisun, chairman of HD Hyundai, met with the head of the American Bureau of Shipping on April 27 (local time), as the company deepens partnerships to accelerate the digital transformation of its shipbuilding operations.
The meeting, held at HD Hyundai’s global R&D center in Seongnam, brought together ABS Chairman John McDonaldand senior executives from both sides, including Kim Hyung-kwan, chief executive of HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, and ABS Executive Vice President Derek Novak. The executives discussed ways to advance digital technologies across the shipbuilding value chain.
HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering signed a memorandum of understanding with ABS to collaborate on implementing a “digital thread,” a system designed to connect data across the entire lifecycle of a vessel—from design and production to maintenance—into a unified flow.
“Digital technologies are transforming shipbuilding, enhancing safety and performance across the vessel lifecycle,” McDonald said. “This agreement reflects our shared commitment to delivering practical safety and operational value while advancing industry-leading technologies.”
The partnership marks the latest step in HD Hyundai’s broader effort to build its “Future of Shipyard” initiative, aimed at creating a fully digitalized and increasingly automated shipyard ecosystem. The company completed the first phase of the project in late 2023, focused on real-time operational visibility.
HD Hyundai plans to complete the second phase—centered on connected and predictive optimization—by the end of this year, with a third phase targeting more autonomous shipyard operations by 2030. The company aims to increase productivity by about 30% and reduce shipbuilding time by a similar margin.
To support the initiative, HD Hyundai has been expanding partnerships with global technology firms. It has worked with Siemens since 2021 on next-generation design and production platforms, with plans to deploy the system across its global shipyards by 2028
The company is also exploring digital twin technologies by combining Siemens’ industrial software with NVIDIA’s GPU-based Omniverse platform. NVIDIA Chief Executive Jensen Huang earlier this year cited HD Hyundai as a leading example of applying digital twin concepts in heavy industry
The addition of ABS to its partner network underscores HD Hyundai’s strategy of integrating software, hardware and certification expertise to build a next-generation shipyard model.
