The Anonymous Widower

Hyundai Heavy Sets Sights On Scottish Floating Offshore Wind

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.

This is the sub-heading.

Major South Korean shipbuilder, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with two Scottish enterprise agencies which is expected to unlock expertise in the design and manufacture of floating offshore wind substructures.

These are the first three paragraphs.

Scottish Enterprise (SE) and Highlands & Islands Enterprise (HIE) signed the MoU with Hyundai Heavy in Edinburgh, described as a “vote of confidence” in Scotland, committing each other to pursue opportunities for floating offshore wind projects in Scotland.

This is the South Korean company’s first agreement in Europe on floating offshore wind manufacturing.

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries is the world’s largest shipbuilding company and a major manufacturer of equipment such as the floating substructures that form a critical part of the multi-billion offshore wind supply chain.

To say this is a big deal, could be a massive understatement, as my history with large Korean companies could say otherwise.

Around 1980, one of the first prestigious overseas projects, that was managed by Artemis was in Saudi Arabia.

• This may have been something like the King Khaled City, but I can’t be sure.
• Most of the hard work on the project was done by labour imported by Hyundai from South Korea.

After a few years, the Korean running Hyundai’s part of the project returned to Korea and he indicated that he would help us break into the Korean market.

Our salesman; Paul, with responsibility for Korea, who sadly passed away last year, told me this tale of doing business in the country.

Our Korean friend had bought a system for Hyundai in Korea and he organised a meeting for important Korean companies, so that Paul could present the system.

Everything went well, with our friend doing the necessary pieces of translation.

When he had finished, Paul asked if there were any questions.

The most common one was “Can we see the contract?”

Contracts were given out and after a cursory read, the leaders of Korean industry, all started signing the contracts.

So Paul asked our Korean friend, what was going on.

After a brief discussion, Paul was told. “If it’s good enough for Hyundai, it’s good enough for my company!”

And that was how we broke the Korean market.

Conclusion

In UK And South Korea Help Secure Millions For World’s Largest Monopile Factory, I talked about Korean company; SeAH Wind’s new monopile factory on Teesside.

In South Korea, UK Strengthen Offshore Wind Ties, I talk about a developing partnership.

In Mersey Tidal Project And Where It Is Up To Now, I talk about Korean involvement in the Mersey Tidal Project.

The Koreans are coming and Hyundai’s endorsement will help.

April 18, 2024 - Posted by AnonW | Energy | Floating Wind Power, Hyundai, Korea, Mersey Tidal Power, Offshore Wind Power, Saudi Arabia, SeAH Wind, Wind Power