Busan is good

Busan to Welcome Samsung Heavy Industries R&D Hub, Strengthening Future Competitiveness of the Shipbuilding and Offshore Industries

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Busan Metropolitan City announced that it will sign an investment memorandum of understanding with Samsung Heavy Industries Co., Ltd., one of Korea’s leading shipbuilding and offshore companies, at 10:30 a.m. today, September 3, in the International Protocol Room at Busan City Hall for the expansion of the Busan R&D Center.

Busan Mayor Chun Jae-soo and Samsung Heavy Industries President and CEO Choi Sung-an will attend the signing ceremony and personally sign the memorandum of understanding.

Samsung Heavy Industries recently secured an order for an FLNG project from the U.S.-based company Delfin, successfully establishing a foothold in the North American market and enhancing its technological competitiveness for additional FLNG orders and in the offshore plant industry.

FLNG stands for Floating Liquefied Natural Gas and refers to a large floating facility that performs the entire process of extracting, liquefying, storing, and offloading natural gas at sea.

As the workload at the Busan center has increased sharply in preparation for the full-scale design phase of Delfin’s recently awarded FLNG project, Samsung Heavy Industries plans to move quickly with the expansion and relocation of the Busan R&D Center and a large-scale recruitment drive.

Through this investment, Samsung Heavy Industries will expand the Busan R&D Center within Busan, which is close to its Geoje Shipyard and offers ready access to specialized technical talent in the shipbuilding and offshore sectors.

The company will invest approximately KRW 8.6 billion to expand and relocate the center to a facility with a total floor area of 1,700 pyeong in the Munhyeon Financial Complex in Nam-gu, and plans to hire new offshore design and research personnel through 2028.

Through this investment, Samsung Heavy Industries plans to move beyond the Busan center’s initial role of supporting detailed design work. It will broaden the center’s functions to include sales, research, and information technology operations in addition to design, developing it into an integrated design hub covering the entire offshore business process.

The expansion and relocation, which is expected to draw R&D talent away from the Seoul metropolitan area and into the region, represents more than an increase in research space. It is expected to serve as an important catalyst for Busan to emerge as a key R&D hub leading the green and digital transformation of the shipbuilding and offshore industries.

In particular, the establishment of Samsung Heavy Industries’ research capabilities and highly skilled workforce in Busan is expected to provide local young people with quality jobs and opportunities for growth, while also making a major contribution to creating a virtuous investment ecosystem in which talented professionals can study, work, and settle in the region.

Busan Metropolitan City plans to attract more knowledge-service companies currently concentrated in the Seoul metropolitan area and create quality jobs preferred by local young people, building on the region’s abundant pool of specialized technical talent graduating each year from 22 local universities, including Pusan National University, as well as Busan’s favorable living conditions compared with other regions.

This investment is also a notable example of attracting a major corporation’s core research functions to the region. It is expected to further strengthen Busan’s industrial competitiveness and serve as a catalyst for fostering future growth industries, including the shipbuilding and offshore sectors.

Mayor Chun Jae-soo is expected to say, “Leading Korean shipbuilding and offshore companies are increasingly gathering in Busan, driven by the synergies created by the relocation of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. We expect Samsung Heavy Industries’ investment to strengthen the region’s offshore industry ecosystem, help prevent local young people and highly skilled professionals from leaving for the Seoul metropolitan area, and make a significant contribution to creating a virtuous cycle of employment. Busan Metropolitan City will provide full support to Samsung Heavy Industries so that the public and private sectors can work together seamlessly toward establishing Busan as Korea’s maritime capital.”