Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Seeks to Expand Business Opportunities in Russia

Seoul, South Korea – June 4 – Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries (HSHI), a shipbuilding affiliate of Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) Group, the world’s largest shipbuilding group, announced today it signed a Technical Support Agreement (TSA) with Zvezda-Hyundai, a 49-51 joint venture established in May this year between HSHI and Zvezda, a Russian shipbuilding company.

Under the agreement, HSHI will provide a list of technical support including engineering, procurement and educational training needed in designing and building aframax class tankers capable of running on cooled natural gas. HSHI will make sure that design documents correspond to the basic design of vessels to be built, which is later to be the capital of the joint venture.

The signing ceremony of the agreement held on June 2 at during St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) was attended by Ka Sam-hyun, president and CEO of Group Ship/Offshore Marketing Division of HHI; Igor Sechin CEO of Rosnef; Andrey Shishkin, vice president for Energy, Localization and Innovation of Rosnef; and Park Ro-byug, South Korea's ambassador to Russia.

An HSHI official said, “The establishment of Zvezda-Hyundai in May this year and the technical support agreement today will not only be another income generating source for us, but will also serve as an opportunity for us to expand business chances in Russia.”

Including the recent order from Sovcomflot to build four 114,000 DWT VLCC this February, HHI Group has won a total of 94 ships from Russia to date.