Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), the world’s largest shipbuilder, announced today it developed Integrated Smart Ship Solution (ISSS), its proprietary ICT technology capable of realizing economical and reliable navigation and management of ships. ISSS is the first of its kind in the global shipbuilding industry.

The solution standardizes ways of navigation varying depending on levels of skills and experiences of navigators, collects and analyzes real-time information on navigations, and thus will play a role in enhancing efficiency and safety of ships. The solution is expected to cut annual operating cost by 6%.

As IMO will introduce e-Navigation, a strategy to bring about increased safety of navigation in commercial shipping through better organization of data on ships by 2019, the demand for smart ships is expected to grow further.

Smart ship technology is a system that helps ships’ efficient operation by using ICT and big data. HHI developed the smart ship technology in 2011 for the first time in the world and has applied the system to about 300 ships it delivered so far. Moreover, in May this year HHI signed a memorandum of understanding on establishing a partnership in the smart ship sector with the National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri).

Lloyd’s Register’s Luis Benito, Innovation, Strategy and Research Director, Marine and Offshore said, “HHI’s technology seeks to align with delivering the key benefits we believe the maritime industry will most benefit from through the adoption of connected, digital and autonomous technologies as the next generation of shipping embraces digitalization. According to Clarkson Research, about 6,500 ships are to be ordered globally for the next five years. Considering the global shipbuilding market share HHI takes up now, ISSS is to be installed on approximately 700 ships for the comparable time period.”

ISSS is developed on the back of INTEGRICT which is Hyundai Electric’s, a newly spun off company of HHI, intelligence energy management system. ISSS provides a wide range of ship information to operators including optimal navigation routes and navigation speed along with a slope status of the front and back hull of a ship that minimize resistances a ship takes on voyage. The solution allows safer and more efficient management of ships by collecting and analyzing energy data and monitoring status of engines and propellers. The ICT solution already completed field tests as well by being mounted on a 6,500 PCTC and a 250,000 DWT VLOC.

An HHI official said, “As we have always been, we will continue to exert our efforts to lead the global shipbuilding market with differentiated technological edges through the digital innovation.”