Hyundai Glovis, the shipping arm of the Hyundai Kia Automotive Group, has signed a new collaboration agreement with Norwegian firm Wilhelmsen which will see the companies work together to explore new digital initiatives and conduct research into alternative vessel fuels.
The new MoU extends a business relationship that has been in place since 2004, and will see the two partners exchange expertise to improve existing technology and service areas and evaluate short and longer-term opportunities to introduce new innovations.
Wilhelmsen says that it will share several of its digital initiatives for potential trial on Hyundai Glovis vessels for mutual benefit, including technologies such as its vessel performance monitoring system, digital mooring application, or onboard IT infrastructure.
Expanding the use of these systems to the Hyundai Glovis fleet will allow Wilhelmsen to benchmark its own performance and further refine its technologies alongside its new partner.
“We are pleased to strengthen our partnership with Wilhelmsen Group. This MoU that we are signing today will leverage on each company’s strengths to maximise synergies and provide competitive options for both companies to respond to rapidly growing global gas demands and tightened environmental regulations,” said Jung-Hoon Kim, CEO of Hyundai Glovis.
The new agreement also contains a strong focus on opportunities within the global gas shipping market, including research into alternative vessel fuels, such as Liquefied Hydrogen.
“We have always been interested in leveraging potential synergies between the two companies, but it’s our shared focus on developing hydrogen as a fuel for the future that has acted as the real catalyst,” said Thomas Wilhelmsen, CEO of the Wilhelmsen group.
“Starting an in-depth discussion, which has unlocked a number of areas where we can share competence, expertise and ambition, this framework agreement is just the beginning”.
In addition to ship management services and digital initiatives, Hyundai Glovis will also look for opportunities to cooperate with Wilhelmsen’s agency division to achieve operational efficiencies across its global port operations.
