Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co.(DSME) has launched a research institute for military vessels such as submarine and other naval vessels including special ships in a ceremony held on Feb. 19 at its Seoul head office.

 Some 80 people attended the event led by Rep. Kim Seong-chan, chairman of the National Defense Committee of the National Assembly, Vice Naval Chief of Staff Uhm Hyun-seong and President  Koh Jae-ho of DSME, among others.

 Rep. Kim Seong-chan said in his congratulatory speech at the ceremony, that the expanding naval power has been an ongoing global trend and the institute set up by DSME’s special function research institute would be a foundation to support the Korean navy to grow to be a great ocean-going naval force in the world.

 DSME President Koh said, in his speech, that the research institute is to take up the research on special functions of naval vessels including submarine and various naval ships exclusively not to fall behind the global trend to cut up a bigger share in the world defense industry market and train the personnel to take care of the personnel training to man the facility under the company’s central research institute attached to the Strategic Planning Office of DSME.

 The new research institute will be located in the Magok Engineering Center to be built by 2017 in Magok, Gyeonggi Province, equipped with the largest multi-purpose tow water tanks among its special function test equipment. The institute will do research on the ways to boost the submarine’s battle strategies operation, smart vessel technology, core equipment technology, unmanned marine technology, to name some of  its research subjects to upgrade high-tech defense industrial technologies geared ultimately to strengthen the naval power for battle. The institute will expand its staff by 50 percent by next year.

 In the meantime, DSME  clinched shipbuilding orders from Russia for 57 new ships including large container carriers, drill ships and LNG carriers worth $13.6 billion last year.

 The shipyard set the record in shipbuilding orders thanks to its skills in all aspects of building ships such as engineering, purchase, and construction (EPC), officials of the shipyard said.

 The company pushes its strategy to secure shipbuilding orders around the world, stressing the fact that it is an all-round shipbuilding company, along with its plan to localize its marketing operations by setting up close ties with local customers as it did in Russia.

 The shipbuilder was able to strengthen its ties with native Russian shipping firms through the exchanges of technology and investments in order to expand its chances to secure shipbuilding orders under what it calls “Country Marketing,” a localization strategy that the shipbuilder has been pushing for several years.

 The shipbuilder had to set up a special marketing campaign to get around the Russian government policy to nurture its own shipbuilding industry by building new ships at its domestic shipyards.

DSME won its first ship order in Russia from Sovcomflot, a state-owned shipping company, to build two LNG carriers in 2004 and continued to get orders from the shipping company totaling 15 tankers and LNG carriers worth $1.12 billion. Sovcomflot is the world’s largest maritime shipping company with many oil tankers and LNG carriers in its fleet.

 DSME officials said through their company’s close ties with the giant Russian shipping company, they have been able to not only clinch many new shipbuilding orders, but also secure shipbuilding lots in Russia. DSME has decided to participate in the rejuvenation project of the Zvezda shipyard in Vladivostok, Far East Russia, by signing an MOU with a number of Russian financial and oil firms such as Rosneft, a state-run oil exploration company, and Gazprombank, a financial affiliate of Gazprom, a government-run gas company, and Sovcomflot.

 The consortium will take on the project to convert the Zvezda shipyard in Siberian Russia for building LNG carriers and general cargo ships, in addition to its usual operation building military vessels as the largest shipyard in Russia.