Envisioning the future of shipbuilding with Hanwha Ocean CTO Young-chang Shon
Shipbuilding is undergoing a significant revival, fueled by global geopolitical shifts, regulatory changes, digitalization, and the push toward alternative fuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. No longer just about constructing vessels, shipbuilding today is about engineering future-ready fleets that are efficient, adaptable, and designed for long-term value.
At the forefront of the industry’s new chapter is Hanwha Ocean, a world-class shipbuilder that’s leveraging its expertise to craft future-ready vessels. Speaking recently, Young-chang Shon, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the Hanwha Ocean Product Strategy and Technology Institute, shared his insights into the key factors driving the industry’s rapid growth and explained how Hanwha is charting a new course for the future of maritime engineering.
The market trends driving the shipbuilding supercycle
For much of the past decade, the global shipbuilding industry has been unpredictable. However, since 2021, rising global trade and a push for fleet modernization have driven record-breaking orders. According to Clarksons Research, 2024 saw shipbuilding’s largest order intake in 17 years, with contracts totaling 66 million compensated gross tons (CGT) valued at $204 billion. So, what’s driving this growth?
Compliance is one factor. Stricter environmental regulations from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and EU are pushing fleet operators to replace aging vessels with fuel-flexible, technology-driven alternatives. In addition, advances in AI-driven manufacturing, shipyard automation, and robotics are accelerating production timelines. All the while, demand for LNG — a cleaner-burning fuel that travels well over long distances — and LNG carrier orders are booming, as global energy demand continues to rise.
Hanwha Ocean, a shipbuilder with diverse capabilities and decades of experience, is rising to the challenge of these evolving demands. As of February 2025, the company is the world’s leading supplier of container ships and holds a 23.4% share of the LNG carrier market, with a leading 20.5% market share in order backlogs. Most recently, it became the first shipbuilder to deliver 200 LNG carriers, with the second 100 completed in half the time. Building on its history of innovation, Hanwha is continuously advancing fuel-efficient and adaptable technologies to shape the next generation of vessels, ensuring they meet both today’s demands and the evolving needs of the future.
A bird’s eye view of Hanwha Ocean’s Geoje shipyard
Future-proof shipbuilding: What does it look like?
Shipowners need flexible, future-ready vessels to meet both current and future standards. To support them in doing so, Hanwha Ocean has developed a strategic roadmap that integrates short-term carbon reduction solutions with a long-term vision for decarbonized shipping.
Discussing this vision, Shon laid out the company’s roadmap: “The first part of the roadmap is about prioritizing improvements in ship energy efficiency,” he explains, with solutions like rotor sails, onboard carbon capture and storage (OCCS), air lubrication systems, and the HS4 smart ship platform — which enable real-time emission monitoring and optimization.
The mid- to long-term, Shon says, centers on “developing solutions to enable fuel conversion for future vessels.” Most notably, Hanwha is pioneering the invention of an ammonia gas turbine with the goal of achieving the world’s first completely carbon-free ship operation. As Shon explains, “the use of ammonia in gas turbine propulsion systems represents a paradigm shift” — ammonia gas turbines are key to enabling zero-emission shipping by eliminating the need for pilot fuel. Hanwha is focusing on ammonia as a catalyst for hydrogen-powered shipping, as ammonia acts as a stable carrier that overcomes hydrogen’s transport challenges by leveraging existing infrastructure for efficient storage and conversion.
Complementing this technology, Hanwha continues to expand globally and increase accessibility to its marine solutions. Notably, in 2024, it completed the acquisition of Hanwha Philly Shipyard, a trusted U.S. shipyard that has provided 50% of all U.S. Jones Act large commercial vessels since 2000.
Hanwha Philly Shipyard is focused on establishing operational excellence by bringing the best of Hanwha’s know-how, technology, and processes to ensure consistent on-time, on-cost performance. While commercial shipbuilding remains the shipyard’s core focus, Hanwha is also building new capacity and capabilities to support the U.S. Navy’s fleet of today and tomorrow.
Further strengthening its portfolio of marine solutions, Hanwha has acquired Dyna-Mac Holdings (now Hanwha Offshore Singapore), a specialized manufacturer of offshore plant topside structures. This expansion strengthens Hanwha’s position as a leading engineering, procurement, construction, installation, and operation (EPCIO) solutions provider for marine facilities and renewable energy businesses worldwide, including floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) and floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) units.
To learn more about the Hanwha technologies powering change, and the company’s vision for growth in the maritime industry, watch the video below.
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