HMM(011200) is accelerating the application of a ship autonomous navigation solution. With international oil prices swinging sharply due to the U.S.-Iran war, the need to cut fuel expenses is growing. By sailing the optimal route through an autonomous navigation solution, annual fuel expenses can be reduced by an average of 4%. If HMM applies this to all ships it owns, it can save more than 40 billion won a year.
On the 13th, HMM said it has completed installing the artificial intelligence (AI) ship autonomous navigation solution "HiNAS Control" on 33 vessels to date. That is 75% progress toward the goal of 44 vessels by the end of this year. HMM plans to introduce HiNAS to all 123 container ships and bulk carriers it directly owns by 2030. Among global major carriers, HMM is the first in the world to apply an autonomous navigation system to an entire fleet of more than 100 ships.
HiNAS, developed by HD Hyundai affiliate Avikus, corresponds to level 2 of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) autonomous navigation standards, allowing remote control with crew on board. The ship itself calculates collision risks within 14 kilometers ahead and suggests optimal routes and speeds. While crew must manually operate in heavily trafficked waters, the workload has been significantly reduced compared with before.
Installation is particularly simple. In the case of cars, to use Autonomous Driving you must buy a vehicle with the system applied, but HiNAS adds a special device with infrared and optical cameras to existing ships, so existing vessels can be used as is. The installation expense per unit is in the hundreds of millions of won, and for large ships, the cost can be recovered within a year, according to Avikus.
This is thanks to the fuel expense savings of autonomous navigation. HMM and Avikus see that installing HiNAS can reduce annual fuel expenses by an average of 4% compared with before. That is because unnecessary route detours and abrupt acceleration or deceleration disappear. An HMM official said, "Fuel expenses are a key factor determining a carrier's profitability, and we are making every effort to reduce them by even 1%," adding, "Being able to cut 4% is a highly meaningful technology."
As international oil prices have shown extreme volatility recently, cutting fuel expenses has emerged as the top priority for the global shipping industry. Brent crude, which had surged to around $120 per barrel due to the U.S.-Iran war, recently fell to around $70, but as tensions between the United States and Iran rose again, it approached $80 as of Aug. 8.
If HMM expands HiNAS to its entire fleet at this point, the gains would reach into the tens of billions of won. HMM spent 1.3478 trillion won on fuel last year, and a simple calculation shows that about 1.0486 trillion won of that was spent on ships it directly owns (123 vessels). If fuel expenses are cut by 4% there, the annual expense would be reduced by about 41.9 billion won. That is more than an average of 300 million won per vessel.