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Robotics: Hyundai develops small welding robot to tackle big jobs

Hyundai Heavy Industries tests out its new miniature robotic welding arm

Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), which lays claim to being the largest shipbuilding company in the world, says it has developed a miniature welding robot that can be easily transported by a worker and affixed to a ship using magnets. The small, portable robot is expected to increase worker productivity two to threefold.

Developed at an internal HHI Research Institute, the miniature welding arm weighs just 15 kg (33 lb), and measures 15 cm (6 inches) high and 50 cm (20 inches) long. The arm itself consists of six joints, allowing it to reach and move like a human arm. Like other industrial robots, this one can operate continuously and produces clean, uniform results.

The robot's small form factor not only makes it easy to transport, but allows it to weld in tight spaces that may be hard to reach by human workers. HHI is involved not only in shipbuilding but also offshore oil rigs, so the robot will get different software to allow it to tackle multiple jobs on marine construction sites, including steel cutting, blasting, and painting work.

The robot is expected to at least double productivity because a single worker can oversee two to three of the robots at once. HHI will deploy the robot in the latter half of this year and says it will ramp up development of other marine construction robots in the future.

Gizmag

Hyundai Heavy exits polysilicon business - transferred 49% stake to the KCC Group for free

The KCC Group will take over the polysilicon manufacturer as a 100%-subsidiary, the report said.

Hyundai Heavy Industries has withdrawn its shares from the joint venture Korean Advanced Materials, which manufactures polysilicon. The low demand and sustained downturn in the photovoltaic industry has been blamed for the decision.

Hyundai Heavy Industries has pulled back and has transferred its 49% stake in Korean Advanced Materials to the KCC Group for free ". KCC Group and Hyundai Heavy had founded the joint venture Korean Advanced Materials in 2008.

The KCC Group will take over the polysilicon manufacturer as a 100% subsidiary, the report said.

After Hyundai Heavy Industries' gratis retirement of stocks from Korean Advanced Materials, the company has lost €83 million. Both companies had originally invested twice as much money in the joint venture.

At the end of 2012, Korean Advanced Materials had total debt of more than €130 million. In the future, the firm will continue to operate its photovoltaic module manufacturing plant in Eumseong, Chungbuk province, a company official told the Korean news portal.

PV Magazine

Hyundai Heavy HHI wins $700 Million order for world's biggest container ship

Hyundai Heavy HHI wins $700 Million order for world's biggest container ship

SEOUL: South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries said Monday it had won a $700 million deal to build the world's largest container ships for China Shipping Container Lines.

 Under the deal signed with China's number two shipper, the world's largest shipbuilder will build five vessels, each capable of carrying 18,400 TEU (20-foot equivalent unit) container boxes, Hyundai said in a statement.

The ships will be the world's largest, breaking the previous record of another South Korean firm, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine, which won an order in 2011 to build 20 18,000 TEU container ships for Denmark's A.P. Moeller-Maersk.

 Delivery of the mega-vessels will begin in the latter half of 2014, Hyundai said. Each ship will boast a 400 metre (yard) long deck, and stand 58.6 metres wide and 30.5 metres high.

 They will feature electronically-controlled main engines that automatically adjust fuel consumption in line with sailing speed and sea conditions, helping to improve fuel efficiency, reduce noise and cut emissions.

 The deal takes the value of Hyundai Heavy's order book so far this year to $9.7 billion, about 40 percent of its annual target of $23.8 billion.

The Economic Times

Hyundai Heavy Industries Opens Brazil Factory

Hyundai Heavy Industries has completed its first construction equipment factory in Brazil. With an investment of $175 million, the more than 6 million square-foot factory has an annual production capacity of 3,000 units including excavators, wheel loaders and backhoe loaders, with plans to increase capacity to 4,000 units by 2014.

 HHI has already received orders worth $60 million for 500 construction equipment units from eight projects in Brazil including the construction of a hydroelectric power plant in the state of Pará and a railway project in northeastern Brazil.

 The completion ceremony for the factory in Itatiaia, Rio de Janeiro, was attended by Rio de Janeiro state governor Sergio Cabral; mayor of Itatiaia Luis Carlos Ferreira Bastos; and Choe Byeong-ku, president and chief operations officer of Hyundai Heavy Industries' Construction Equipment division.

 The Ulsan, Korea-based company expects the new Brazilian plant to be its South and Central America base helping HHI secure market share and provide better service to customers in the region.

"We believe our construction factory can make contributions to and grow together with the Brazilian economy, which continues to grow as a center of the global economy," said Choe.

RER

Petredec orders ultra-modern LPG VLGCs from Hyundai Heavy Industries

International LPG trading and ship-owning firm Petredec Limited has ordered up to four ultra-modern eco-design very large gas carriers from South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries, to upgrade its aging fleet and to handle an expected rise in LPG supply, the company said Monday.

The order is for two firm vessels with an option for Petredec to order two more ships, each with a carrying capacity of 84,000 cubic meters, the Bermuda-based firm said in a statement in response to Platts queries.

The ships are due for delivery in 2015 and 2016, it added.

The VLGCs that Petredec ordered will be the first of Hyundai Heavy Industries' ultra-modern eco design, with innovative features to boost performance while decreasing fuel consumption. The vessels will carry an "Eco" notation from Lloyds Register in recognition of this design, the statement said.

"These ships will usher in a new era at Petredec, as we upgrade our fleet to further enhance efficiencies and economy of our operation," said Petredec Chief Executive, Giles Fearn.

"We are already amongst the biggest operators of VLGCs worldwide and this order further cements that position," he said, adding that the firm is actively investing in the future of its core business in LPG logistics.

The ships will be fitted with Hyundai-MAN ME type engines and the cargo plant has been designed by Babcock LGE Process, which incorporates a patented vent cool system to enable faster cargo loading while reducing power consumption. Shipping experts said such vessels can curb wind as well as the frictional resistance of waves.

Petredec's trading team is the single-biggest lifter of LPG in the Middle East, with up to 15 loadings a month, it said on its website.

The company currently owns 10 tankers for fully refrigerated LPG, three semi-refrigerated vessels and six ships for pressurized LPG, the website shows.

It also has 10 vessels for fully refrigerated LPG on time-charter, seven semi-refrigerated ships and 12 pressurized vessels. In addition, it has two pressurized vessels on bareboat charter, under which no crew or provisions such as fuel are provided by the owner.

GLOBAL TREND OF INCREASING ORDERS OF VLGCs

The move adds to the recent trend of ship owners ordering more very large gas carriers, as global demand for such ships is set to outstrip supply in coming years, with LPG exports forecast to grow 5% a year through 2016, shipping brokers and consultants had said.

Industry consultant Drewry Maritime Research said last month there were 11 orders for VLGCs aggregating more than 900,000 cubic meters last year, versus five VLGCs ordered in 2010 and four in 2011. A VLGC is about 54,000 dwt in size.

The average size has also grown to 32,125 cu m last year from 15,179 cu m in 2010 because of the 11 VLGC orders, Drewry said.

Bermuda-based tanker major Frontline Ltd. have confirmed a total of eight VLGCs, including an option for two more at China's Jiangnan Changxing shipyard, with one slated for fourth-quarter 2014 delivery. The rest are expected to come around 2015-2016, sources said.

Tomza Group has placed an order for a VLGC at Hyundai Heavy Industries, or HHI, for $73.5 million, with vessel due for delivery next April.

Shipping sources told Platts that HHI recently signed a letter of intent with a European company, heard to be Dorian (Hellas), for a new building VLGC. A spokesman for HHI declined to comment.

Norwegian financial services group DNB recently said LPG tanker fleet is expected to grow 4.8% next year, responding to rebounding demand for the product in Asia.

Platts

--Ramthan Hussain, ramthan_hussain@platts.com, Edited by Jonathan Dart, jonathan_dart@platts.com

CSCL Orders Five Triple-E Container Ships $700 million from Hyundai Heavy

Maersk's first Triple-E ship is scheduled for delivery this summer

China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL) is ordering five fuel-efficient triple-E container ships, Dow Jones Newswires reports.

The company is the second to order the 18,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) ships after A.P. Moller-Maersk (Maersk), which has ordered 20 of the vessels.

CSCL will pay about $140 million for each ship, for a total cost of $700 million, and Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries, and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering have all submitted bids for the order, a source said.

CSCL, a unit of state-run China Shipping (Group) Co., said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange that the ships will "raise its core competitiveness."

Maersk, which is scheduled to receive the first of its triple-E ships this summer, has said the vessels will reduce CO2 emissions as well as keeping costs down, thanks to their greater fuel efficiency.

Ship & Bunker News Team

To contact the editor responsible for this story email us at editor@shipandbunker.com

Hyundai Engineering, Siemens to deliver turbines to 535 MW gas-fired plant in Uruguay

Siemens Energy will deliver two SGT5-2000E gas turbines with the associated generators for the Punta del Tigre combined cycle power plant in Ciudad del Plata in the San Jose department of Uruguay. Siemens received the order from Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co., LTD. The end customer is the state-run power utility Administración Nacional de Usinas y Transmisiones Eléctricas.

The plant, fueled with both natural gas and diesel, will have a total installed electrical output of 535 megawatts (MW). The two power units are scheduled to come online in fall/winter 2015/16.

"The SGT5-2000E is a proven, robust turbine that especially impresses customers with its low capital costs and long-term advantages when it comes to maintenance and repair. Currently, more than 380 turbines of this type are in use around the world. Collectively, these turbines have reached over 16 million equivalent operating hours," said John Wilson, Vice President of Product Sales for the Americas at Siemens Energy.

PennEnergy

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