AI-powered HD Hyundai to catapult US shipbuilding + rival China: South Korea’s HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) is looking to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to develop smart shipyards in a bid to revive US shipbuilding and challenge the Chinese sector, Bloomberg reported last week. AI can bridge the gap between South Korea’s manufacturing know-how and the US’s computing power, head of HD Hyundai’s AI Strategy Team Aerin Jungmin Lee told Bloomberg.

REMEMBER- The US is way behind global players in shipbuilding and is set to face anuphill battle to catch up. The US produces just 0.1% of the world’s merchant vessels — down from 5% over 50 years ago — with expensive production costs and the lack of skilled labor being two of the major hurdles facing the US in its quest.

But HHI believes that AI can mitigate some of these challenges, Lee told Bloomberg. For example, HHI launched an AI translation tool that helps the 12k workers from across 17 countries in its shipyards communicate — effectively expanding the pool of accessible skilled labor.

HHI also believes AI can provide a competitive edge in designing future-ready vessels, with the company now working on a new platform, the Shipbuilding AI Master Agent, that can integrate the process for design and production — improving efficiency, providing diagnostics, and preserving engineering expertise, Lee said.

Seoul is no stranger to US tech: The South Korean firm is currently engaged in AI-backed projects with several prominent US tech firms, including Google, Palantir Technologies, and Anduril Industries, and is open to forming more partnerships.

Turning the tanker is costly: HD Hyundai inked an MoU with US firm Cerberus Capital and Korea Development Bank for a multi-mn USD joint fund to improve US-based shipbuilding last August. This came as part of a raft of USD 150 bn agreements that include US-South Korean collaboration on aviation, LNG, and shipbuilding.

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