On the 14th, Hanwha Ocean announced that it held the inaugural meeting of the maritime maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) cluster council with shipyards and specialized ship maintenance and equipment companies in the Busan and Gyeongnam regions.
The meeting was held at Hanwha Ocean's Geoje Business Site and was attended by 15 local companies, including Seongdong Shipbuilding and SK oceanplant. They also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish a foundation for the maritime maintenance industry and promote regional co-prosperity.
Hanwha Ocean's policy is to build a maritime MRO cluster to create a comprehensive cooperation system among local companies and strengthen partnerships for co-prosperity.
To this end, Hanwha Ocean plans to closely evaluate the cooperation potentials and strategic partner possibilities of local shipyards and maintenance specialized companies, then pursue differentiated collaboration strategies.
With the selected strategic partners, they will detail the collaboration content from the initial contract stage and share the project plans in advance for each business.
The maritime MRO cluster council is expected to focus on discussions regarding ▲ strengthening the competitiveness and expanding business models of the maritime MRO business ▲ discovering pre-cooperation models when entering domestic and international MRO markets ▲ securing supply chains (SCM) from the MRO business perspective ▲ shortening business preparation periods and minimizing risks ▲ improving maintenance performance and operational availability.
Kim Dae-sik, executive director of Hanwha Ocean's special vessel MRO business, noted, “We will make Hanwha Ocean’s maritime cluster the premier MRO hub in the Indo-Pacific region and enter the MRO market in North America.”