Samsung Heavy Industries or SHI (Korean: 삼성ì¤'공업) is one of the largest shipbuilders in the world and one of the "Big Three" shipbuilders of South Korea (including Hyundai and Daewoo). A core subsidiary of the Samsung Group, South Korea's largest conglomerate, SHI's main focus is on constructing ships, offshore floaters, gantry cranes, digital devices for ships, and other construction and engineering concerns.
SHI operates manufacturing facilities at home and abroad, including ship block fabrication factories in Ningbo and Rongcheng, China. The Geoje Shipyard in particular, SHI's largest shipyard in South Korea, boasts the highest dock turnover rate in the world. The largest of the three docks, Dock No. 3, is 640 meters long, 97.5 meters wide, and 13 meters deep. Mostly ultra-large ships are built at this dock, having the world's highest production efficiency with yearly dock turnover rate of 10 and the launch of 30 ships per year.
SHI specializes in the building of high added-value and special purpose vessels, including LNG carriers, off-shore related vessels, oil drilling ships, FPSO/FSO's, ultra Large container ships and Arctic shuttle tankers. In recent times SHI has concentrated on LNG tankers and drillships.
History
Samsung Heavy Industries was established in 1974, when the company's Changwon plant was opened. SHI soon purchased Woojin, followed by the construction of Geoje shipbuilding facilities and merger with Daesung Heavy Industries.
Samsung Shipbuilding and Daesung Heavy Industries were merged under Samsung Heavy Industries in 1983. Since then, it has put efforts in the introduction of new technologies and development of products, while expanding the business area into heavy equipment and construction.
Since the 21st century, SHI began to build LNG and large passenger ships in earnest, and exported shipbuilding technologies to the United States. Samsung Heavy Industries decided to advance into the cruise ship market, the last remaining stronghold of EU shipbuilders. The company stated entering the undertaking was necessary to maintain its number one position in the global shipbuilding market. In 2009, SHI was contracted to build a new residential cruise ship named Utopia, which will be the largest passenger ship ever assembled in Asia. The ship will test the waters by 2016.
Vehicle production
Starting in the late 1980s, SHI produced forklifts and heavy equipment (mainly excavators) at Changwon. The forklift production was established through agreements with Clark Material Handling Company (production started in 1986) and the heavy equipment production came from the construction equipment division of Korea's Heavy Industries and Construction, acquired by Samsung in 1983 (SHI began manufacturing heavy equipment in 1987). Truck production was added in May 1993. The company also assembled electric car prototypes. The truck production business was spun off in 1996 as a separate company called Samsung Commercial Vehicles. The forklift and heavy equipment businesses were sold off in 1998.
See also
- Economy of South Korea
- List of Korean companies
- List of Korea-related topics
- List of shipbuilders and shipyards
- Seocho Samsung Town
- Samsung Heavy Industries Rugby Club
References
External links
- Samsung Heavy Industries websiteâ€"(in English)
- Samsung Heavy Industries, Power & Control Systems Division website
- Samsung Global website
