As South Korea and India discuss cooperation in the shipbuilding industry, it has been reported that Chairman Chung of HD Hyundai is considering a visit to India at the end of this month. Chairman Chung is expected to attend the naming ceremony for the vessel that HD Hyundai Heavy Industries built for the Danish shipping company A.P. Moller - Maersk and meet with Indian government officials and industry representatives.
According to the shipbuilding industry on the 7th, Chairman Chung is considering attending the naming ceremony for the dual-fuel methanol container ship that Maersk will hold at Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai on the 28th. The vessel is a 16,592 TEU (1 TEU is one 6m container) container ship built by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and will be the tenth methanol-powered container ship operated by Maersk.
Maersk has repeatedly ordered methanol vessels from HD Hyundai as part of its goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040. Chairman Chung also attended Maersk's ninth naming ceremony for a methanol-powered container ship held in Singapore last November.
Chairman Chung is likely to discuss cooperation plans with Indian government officials and shipyard representatives during his attendance at the Maersk naming ceremony. This follows requests from the Indian side for cooperation in shipbuilding and repair with South Korean shipbuilders, including HD Hyundai. A delegation from India, consisting of senior officials from the Indian Ministry of Shipping and Ports, including Minister T.K. Ramachandran, along with representatives from Indian shipyards such as Cochin Shipyard, L&T Shipbuilding, and Swan Advance, visited South Korea from late November to early December last year to tour HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hanwha Ocean, and Samsung Heavy Industries. At that time, the Indian delegation reportedly conveyed their views on technical cooperation and joint investment.
Since then, discussions have been ongoing between the public and private sectors of both countries to find specific cooperation plans. Last month, representatives from Hanwha Ocean visited India at the invitation of the Indian government to meet with government officials and toured facilities such as Swan Advance, Cochin Shipyard, Hindustan Shipyard, and L&T Shipbuilding. Recently, the Korea Marine Equipment Industry Cooperative (KOMEA), which has major domestic shipbuilders as members, is known to have responded to the Indian side's request by expressing its willingness to cooperate.
The Indian government has set a goal to elevate its shipbuilding industry, which has less than 1% share of the global market, to the top 10 in the world by 2030. The Modi government is also pushing for the establishment of a maritime development fund of 250 billion rupees (approximately 4.2 trillion won) to support shipbuilding.