The outline of a shipbuilding workforce training program, which will be the starting point of the Korea-U.S. shipbuilding cooperation project "MASGA (Make American Shipbuilding Great Again)," has emerged. The plan is to proceed from April in a format led by public institutions, universities, associations, and other Nonprofit Institutions (NPI), with the three major shipbuilders providing support.
According to the shipbuilding industry on the 2nd, a notice to select an operator to establish and run the "Korea-U.S. Shipbuilding and Offshore Industry Technology Cooperation Center," overseen by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources, is expected to be released by the middle of this month or, at the latest, early next month. Afterward, a final operator will be selected through an evaluation committee's review of the consortia that apply to participate.
The Korea-U.S. Shipbuilding and Offshore Industry Technology Cooperation Center will be responsible for tasks such as workforce training and discovering automation research and development (R&D) projects. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources is said to plan to finalize a U.S. base where the center will be located along with the operator selection, and begin operations in April.
Leading candidates for operator include the Korea Research Institute of Ships and Ocean Engineering (KRISO) and the Research Institute of Medium & Small Shipbuilding. KRISO is Korea's only Government-funded research institute in the shipbuilding and offshore field.
HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, Hanwha Ocean, and Samsung Heavy Industries, the three major shipbuilders, were initially expected to lead the project through direct participation, but their role is likely to shift to support from the rear. An industry official said, "The purpose of this project is not to support Korean shipbuilders' entry into the U.S. market, but to improve the fundamentals of the U.S. shipbuilding industry," adding, "Workforce training and infrastructure-building projects are usually handled by nonprofit institutions."
The workforce training program will be tailored after surveying the training needs of U.S. shipbuilders. After establishing a training center in the United States, the program will be designed by specifically identifying necessary training such as welding, piping work, and painting. In this process, Korean shipyards will support curriculum design and personnel, and a locally tailored program will be produced based on that.
There are also plans to invite retired technicians as instructors and dispatch them locally. The plan is to utilize experts in each field who worked for shipbuilders for a long time, left the companies, and have continued to be active.
Along with workforce training, helping introduce shipbuilding automation systems—an item requested by the United States—is also cited as a key task of the Korea-U.S. Shipbuilding and Offshore Industry Technology Cooperation Center. Korea and the United States are working together to identify R&D projects on how to configure production lines and which processes to introduce automation systems into.
An industry official said, "There are processes in shipyards that can be produced in a conveyor belt-style flow, and in Korea, automation is already quite advanced thanks to long-standing investment," adding, "We will study how to quickly introduce this to the United States."
The regions where two training centers will be established are also taking shape. It is said to be highly likely that one will be built in each of an East Coast and a West Coast city in the United States. A center focused on industrial cooperation such as shipyards is expected to open on the East Coast, where government agencies and major corporations are concentrated, and a center focused on industry-academia cooperation such as R&D is expected to open on the West Coast, where engineering schools strong in ship and ocean engineering are located.
A government official said, "The purpose of this project is to establish a base to facilitate Korea-U.S. shipbuilding cooperation," adding, "Including the U.S. government, we will proceed with the project in close communication with local shipyards and related institutions even after the center is established."