Japanese and Korean shipbuilders deploy robots to take on China

South Korea and Japan are accelerating the deployment of robots in their shipyards as China's dominance of the industry alarms Washington and its allies. The push towards "smart shipyards" has become essential as Seoul and Tokyo grapple with deepening labour shortages, long order backlogs and intensifying competition from lower-cost Chinese rivals, which secured 63 per cent of ship orders last year, according to Clarksons. The two east Asian countries are vital for the US to reduce reliance on China for commercial and naval shipbuilding. The two largest shipbuilding nations after China comprise 40 per cent of global vessel production as of last year and possess crucial technological expertise on liquefied natural gas carriers, submarines and marine engines. However, they face an uphill task as some experts said Chinese yards had outpaced them in developing and deploying welding robots and smart systems in one of the toughest industries to automate.

"China is adopting robots for shipbuilding more aggressively and at a faster pace than the other two countries," said Woo Jong-hun, a professor of naval architecture and ocean engineering at Seoul National University. Shipbuilding is difficult to automate because every vessel differs in design and structure, unlike standardised products such as cars. Yards are also complex and hazardous outdoor working environments, with narrow and irregular spaces similar to construction sites for buildings. As such, the sector remains heavily dependent on an ageing pool of skilled workers.

"Our future competitiveness and long-term survival depend on whether we can develop multifunctional robots using AI and autonomous technologies," said Ryu Sang-hun, vice-president at HD Hyundai Samho, an affiliate of South Korea's largest shipbuilder. "Robots help us make up for labour shortages and guarantee product quality." While skilled workers may complete individual jobs more quickly, robots excel at maintaining consistent quality and output. A worker can complete as many as 30 welding cells a day, while robots can increase that to up to 50, according to HD Hyundai Samho, which estimated that the technology could help accelerate the delivery of vessels by days. Fanuc, the world's largest industrial robot maker, has produced its first two welding and painting machines tailored exclusively for shipbuilders. It aims to deploy as many robots as people in Japan's shipbuilding industry, which has 75,000 workers, to enable night-time operations.

"Shipbuilders now see automation to be urgent and trials have started in earnest," said Kenichiro Abe, senior managing officer at Fanuc. At HD Hyundai's yards in Ulsan, robots identify welding locations using design data, move between ship blocks and perform simple welding, while workers supervise operations through computer systems. Hanwha Ocean, South Korea's third-largest shipbuilder, said a human operator could manage up to 10 robots for standardised welding work. Experts were divided over whether China was further ahead in automation than South Korea and Japan, which have more mature shipbuilding industries. George Q Huang, a professor of smart manufacturing at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, estimated South Korean and Japanese yards were likely to be five years ahead in adopting robots, but China "should be more or less able to catch up" in that timeframe.

南韩和日本正加速在船厂部署机器人，因中国主导行业让华盛顿及其盟友警觉。向"智能船厂"的转型已成为必然，因为首尔和东京正面临深入的劳动力短缺、漫长的订单积压及来自成本更低的中国竞争对手的激烈竞争，后者去年根据Clarkson的数据占据了63%的船订。这两个东亚国家对美国而言至关重要，旨在降低对中国进行商业和军舰建造的依赖。作为全球最大的三大船builder国国之一，中国之后的两个最大船building国去年合计占据全球船舶产量的40%，并拥有液化天然气运输船、潜艇和海洋发动机等关键技术专长。然而，它们面临艰难的挑战，因为部分专家称，中国船厂已在发展和部署焊接机器人及智能系统方面超越了它们，这是自动化最困难的行业之一。

"中国正比其他两个国家更激进、更快速地采用船building机器人," 首尔国立大学海洋工程与 naval architecture 系教授 Woo Jong-hun 说。船building难以自动化，因为每艘船只在设计和结构上各不相同，与汽车等标准化产品不同。船厂也是复杂且危险的户外作业环境，狭窄且不规则的空间类似于建筑工地。因此，该行业仍严重依赖一批老化的熟练工人。

"我们的未来竞争力和长期生存取决于我们能否开发出利用 AI 和自主技术的多功能机器人," 韩国最大船builder的附属公司 HD Hyundai Samho 副总裁 Ryu Sang-hun 说。"机器人帮助我们弥补劳动力短缺并保证产品质量。" 虽然熟练工人可能更快完成单个任务，但机器人在保持一致的质量和产出方面表现出色。根据 HD Hyundai Samho 的数据，熟练工人每天最多可完成 30 个焊接单元，而机器人可将这一数字提高到最多 50 个。 Fanuc，世界最大的工业机器人制造商，已专门为船builder生产了首批两台焊接和喷涂机器人。它旨在部署尽可能多的机器人，以取代日本船building行业中 75,000 名工人的岗位，从而实现夜间作业。

"船builder现在将自动化视为紧迫，试验已全面展开," Fanuc 高级总经理 Kenichiro Abe 说。在 HD Hyundai 的蔚山船厂，机器人利用设计数据识别焊接位置，在船块之间移动并执行简单的焊接，而工人则通过计算机系统监督操作。韩国第三大船builder Hanwha Ocean 表示，人工操作员可管理多达 10 台用于标准焊接工作的机器人。专家们对中国是否比拥有更成熟船building产业的韩国和日本更具自动化进展存在分歧。香港理工大学智能制造教授 George Q Huang 估计，韩国和日本的船厂在采用机器人方面可能领先中国约五年，但中国 "在该时间框架内大体上能够追上"。

关键实体：公司：HD Hyundai Samho、Fanuc、Hanwha Ocean、Clarkson | 人员：Woo Jong-hun、Ryu Sang-hun、Kenichiro Abe、George Q Huang | 地点：首尔、东京、蔚山、广州、香港、中国、日本、韩国

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