Co-President Chung Ki-sun of Hyundai Global Service(HGS). / Co-President Ahn Kwang-hyun of Hyundai Global Service

Hyundai Global Service has been making a name for itself.

President Chung Ki-sun is getting all the credit for the company’s success since its launch in Dec. 2016, as he was the one who thought the company had a bright future and convinced those involved, including his father, Chairman Chung Mong-joon of the Asan Foundation, to start the company when he was vice president of Hyundai Heavy Industries.

To the surprise of those directly involved in the company’s future, including members of his family, the company so far up to Oct. 31, 2018, had a business backlog of $420 million, far above the company’s early projection of $184 million, and they now expect it to log $500 million in orders for the year. Most of the work included those that have to do with the scrubbers and water tanks, officials of the company said.

With orders piling up, they expect sales next year to come in at 700 billion won, three-times more than all of last year, which stood at 240 billion won. If the current trend holds, the company expects that to rise to 2 trillion won in sales in 2022.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) made the installation of a ballast water treatment system obligatory on all ships from September next year, and the IMO at the same time strengthened the standard for the prevention of sea water pollution by cutting the minimum allowable pollution rate to 0.5 percent from 3.5 percent.

They expect the measure would create a 5 to 6 trillion won market around the world, along with those for ballast water treatment systems. Many ships are looking to install scrubbers instead of burning low-sulfur oil, which is much more expensive than the bunker-C oil now being used, to meet the new sulfur standard.

Hyundai Global Service developed technologies to cut the production time for a scrubber, from 15 months to just 7 months, which many shipping companies welcome.

An official of Hyundai Global Service said they learned many superb technologies from Hyundai Heavy Industries, a top shipbuilder in the world, and switched them to its operations involving many environment-friendly works such as the installation of structures, and after services, among others, and the company would not have trouble meeting its target of 2 trillion won in annual sales by 2022.

IMO is providing training to countries in the west Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden on managing insecurity in the maritime domain in a regional workshop at the Djibouti Regional Training Centre (9-13 December).

It’s the latest in an ongoing series of capacity-building initiatives in the region, targeted at national focal points and key personnel in maritime security. Participants include officers from coast guards, marine police, navy and maritime administrations, serving at sea or ashore, who have operational responsibility for maritime law enforcement.

The main mission and responsibility of the International maritime organization, is to develop and preserve a comprehensive framework of regulations and policies for the shipping industry and its activities like maritime security, safety, technical co operation, environmental concerns and legal matters.

The IMO has been successfully disposing this task since its inception with the specialized committees and sub committees at the headquarters. The sessions of these committees are attended by numerous delegates and experts from the member countries and also by non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations.

The governing body of the IMO is an assembly that meets bi-yearly. The assembly comprises of all the member states. In the intervening time between the Assembly sessions a council acts as the governing body.

Key executives of both Hyundai Global Service and Hyundai Merchant Marine are gathered for a photo session after signing an MoU for cooperation on June 25, 2018, at the shipping company office in Seoul. (Photos: HGS)