South Korea and Japan Race to Automate Shipyards as China Dominates Orders

South Korea and Japan are accelerating efforts to automate their shipyards as China strengthens its dominance of global shipbuilding, according to the FT. Chinese yards secured 63% of global ship orders last year while Korean and Japanese producers face labor shortages, ageing workforces and rising costs.
At HD Hyundai, robots already perform routine welding, while Hanwha Ocean says a single worker can supervise as many as 10 robots. Japan's Fanuc ultimately wants shipyards to deploy as many robots as human workers, enabling more overnight production.
HD Hyundai is targeting partially "dark" factories by 2030, while Hanwha Ocean aims to automate 70% of production. Shipbuilding remains difficult to automate at scale, but advances in AI-powered robotics could become a major competitive advantage in the strategically important industry.