Interesting -
US Navy shipbuilding is ‘a mess.’ South Korean companies think they can help fix it
“All of our programs are a mess,” US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan told a US House hearing in June.
“I think our best one is six months late and 57% over budget … That is the best one,” Phelan testified
During a CNN visit to the Hyundai and Hanwha shipyards last month, officials explained how South Korea has become a shipbuilding powerhouse that turns out vessels quickly and efficiently.
At the Hanwha yard, officials showed CNN brand-new buildings specially built to service an an order for four frigates from the South Korean navy. The massive building where the hulls will be put together took just 14 months to complete, one official said.
The 122-meter-long, 3,100-ton frigates that will be built there will be formidable, with vertical launch cells for air defense missiles and the ability to launch anti-ship missiles as well as anti-submarine torpedoes.
My comments on the above - 14 months to build the hull of a frigate that will be about double the tonnage of the CDC that is now being discussed....
The average worker in HHI’s workforce of 32,000 has been with the company 16 years, he said.
US shipping expert Sal Mercogliano, a professor at Campbell University in North Carolina, said the fact that Korean shipyards toggle between military and commercial work is a strength.
That allows them to “keep a core group of shipworkers in the yard,” he said, switching between military and commercial projects as new business dictates.
Will never happen here in Canada.
The shipyard can source about 90% of parts and materials it needs from within 50 kilometers (31 miles) of the Geoje shipyard, located on an island at the peninsula’s southern tip, said Hanwha Ocean General Manager Jeon Yu-su.
The efficiency of the Korean shipyards is notable
We brag about how all regions in Canada are brought into the fold for supplies parts/materials needed for the JSS or AOPS, but yet this leads to much higher costs and timelines to deliver a product. It also reduces the 'ownership' in ensuring that the suppliers deliver consistently a quality product. How hard is it to hide from your customer if they are only a 30-45min car ride from you shop vs a 3hr flight, plus time spent going to the airport, waiting at the airport, picking up a rental car and then finally driving to the supplier, plus the dollar cost to do all this.
Hanwha hopes so. Last year it bought Philly Shipyard in Pennsylvania, and earlier this year announced it will pump $5 billion into the facility, looking for commercial and eventually military work.
Read - Read the amount of money Hanwha put into that shipyard, of their own money, to refit 1 shipyard and then think about how much money Seaspan or Irving spent of THEIR own money on their shipyards.
