HHI's Successful Diversification

Hyundai Heavy Industries builds ships on land, supplies oil refineries and solar power plant facilities

Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) held a launching ceremony for two LPG carriers built on land without a dock, naming them BW Prince and BW Princess, the company said on Oct. 24.
They were the first LPG carriers in the world built on land without dock facilities, relying on 1,600-ton-capacity Goliath cranes, the company said at the ceremony held at its marine plant division in Ulsan.
HHI first built a ship, an oil tanker, on land in 2004 and named her Challenger. Three years later came the launch of the two land-built LPG carriers, which have complicated cargo-loading systems, confirming its technological edge over rival shipbuilders around the world.
The two LPG tankers were lifted with the improved Goliath cranes after assembling them using a new engineering method, ensuring faster and safer work on them, the company said.
The new construction method enabled the faster and safer building of the cargo bay of the LPG tanker because it was built in one piece instead of the usual five due to its 1,500 ton weight.
The new building method also reduced the number of parts by half from some 80, boosting effectiveness.
The LPG carriers were delivered to the owner BW Gas Co. of Norway, which ordered the ships in 2005. They are 225 meters in length, 36.6 meters wide and 22 meters high, totaling 82,000 cubic meters in size.
Among some 80 people gathered at the dockside ceremony were Vice Chairman Andreas Sohman-Pao of BW Gas Co. and Director Oh Byong-wook of the Marine Business Headquarters of HHI. The two LPG carriers will be officially handed over to the owner in February next year following sea trials.
HHI is in the process of building eight more LPG carriers on land for a number of foreign shipping companies including CMM of Greece, QSC of Qatar, and SK Shipping of Korea. The company has so far built 16 oil tankers on land. HHI has back orders of some 50 vessels from an assortment of countries including Russia, Germany and India, not counting the LPG carriers. From next month, the company plans to increase the number of ships that can be built on land to 16 from the current eight.
Director Oh said the technology to build ships on land was developed with the challenging and pioneering spirits of the entire company and they would not let up on R&D activities in order to leave late starters like China behind.
HHI also announced recently that it clinched an order to supply a reactor and regenerator to NIOEC of Iran for its Arak oil refinery. They will be installed at the oil refinery's residual fuel cracking center. A heavy oil cracking center is a facility that produces gasoline, kerosene and other light oil by cracking residual heavy oil like bunker-C oil in its reactors.
The company said it won the $54 million project following a tough competition with rivals from China and Europe from a consortium of China's Sinopec Engineering Inc. and Iran's Sazeh and ODCC (Oil Design Construction Co.). The company said although its bid price was higher than those of the other bidders, it won the project due to the recognition of its high-tech expertise.
The reactor will be 16.5 meters in diameter, 41.5 meters high and weigh 1,400 tons. The company will build them on knock-down basis and complete it at the Arak refinery where it will be installed in March 2010, the company said.
The order has put the company in a good position to win more such orders as petrochemical companies in the Middle East are in the process of investing more money in facilities using their excess of cash from the run-up in oil prices.
HHI has built and supplied oil refinery upgrading facilities for a number of oil refineries at home and abroad since 1992 starting with Exor of Indonesia, Sohar of Oman and GS Caltex and SK Oil Refinery in Korea.
HHI said recently that it won a project to build a solar power plant generating 1.2 mw of electricity from Konergy Co. on a turn-key basis. The project involves the company building 6,000 sheets of solar light modules and installing them at a solar plant by January 2008. Power generated from the plant will be enough to supply electricity to 3,000 homes, the company said.
The solar power plant generates power by absorbing sunlight in the modules and generating power with solar cells. It uses solar batteries to convert sunlight into power without waste or noise making it environment-friendly.
HHI also won a solar power plant order worth $60 million from a European country as part of its strategy to speed up its push into Europe, the largest solar power plant market in the world. The company is also in negotiations with a number of domestic firms to supply solar power plant facilities. nw

A ceremony to deliver two LPG carriers, BW Prince and BW Princess, to BW Gas Co. of Norway at HHI shipyard in Ulsasn Oct. 24.
Danish Queen Margrethe II and her entourage is being guided by HHI President Choi Kil-seon during their visit to HHI shipyard in Ulsan Oct. 10.