Saronic Brings in Samsung Heavy Industries as its Korean Industrial Partner
The American autonomous-vessel firm Saronic has announced the selection of Samsung Heavy Industries as its production-technology partner, just one week after unveiling plans to build a $3.3 billion mega-shipyard in Brownsville, Texas.
Earlier this month, Austin-based Saronic and the state government of Texas unveiled plans to build what could become the largest shipyard in the United States. The company says that it picked Brownsville because of plentiful waterfront space, a substantial workforce, and advantages in infrastructure and logistics. It will be a significant economic boost for one of the lowest-income corners of Texas.
Saronic brings its vessel autonomy knowledge to the partnership, along with a strong and growing relationship with its valuable U.S. Navy customer; SHI brings decades of industrial experience as the second-biggest of Korea's Big Three shipbuilders.
The Samsung partnership will "encompass collaboration on production infrastructure, including robotics-based process automation" at Saronic's yards, the firms said in a joint statement.
Saronic emphasizes its plan to maximize yard automation to keep down cost and speed up production, and has explored partnerships for robotic welding before. This technology is well-developed in Korea, where it is advancing from static production-line applications into portable robot welders for mobile use.
Samsung is well-placed to bring that expertise to the American market. Its chaebol member Samsung Electronics is the majority owner of Rainbow Robotics, and SHI has trialed dozens of robotic welding technologies over the years, notably a spider-shaped wall climbing robot from Korean technology institute KAIST.
“Rebuilding America’s maritime strength requires both world-class technology and the industrial muscle to produce it at scale here at home,” said Dino Mavrookas, co-founder and CEO of Saronic. “Together, we will focus on accelerating the reindustrialization of American shipbuilding, training the workforce of the future, and delivering differentiated, autonomy-capable vessels for both government and commercial applications."
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The selection of a Big Three Korean industrial partner is a step forward for Saronic, giving it the deep engineering bench and production expertise it will need to leapfrog competitors. Saronic is one of seven contractors with approval to participate in the next round of the Navy's Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel (MUSV) development program, and it is the only one yet with a Korean partner.
The Trump administration is putting considerable emphasis on joint U.S.-Korean shipbuilding initiatives after a successful round of trade talks last year, which culminated in Seoul's commitment to invest $150 billion in the U.S. shipbuilding industry (distributed over an extended timeframe). On July 23, Korean Minister of Trade Kim Jung-Kwan and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick attended the launch of the new Korea-U.S. Shipbuilding Partnership Center (KUSPC) in Washington, D.C. The center will be the coordination hub for inbound South Korean investments in research, training and supply chain improvement in the United States.
