ThyssenKrupp Kockums inks pact with with Japanese shipyard

Kockums, the Swedish subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, has signed a licensing agreement with the Japanese shipyard Universal Shipbuilding Corporation. The licensing agreement gives Universal Shipbuilding Corporation the right to use Kockums’ GRP-sandwich technology in the production of hull structures for mine countermeasure vessels.
Universal Shipbuilding Corporation has a long tradition in this sector and has built more than 100 MCMVs in wood. The new MCMVs are built to a Japanese design, based on the earlier vessels, but will now use composites instead of wood for the hulls. Universal Shipbuilding Corporation has now also signed the first production contract.
Mr Jan Olof Johansson CEO of Kockums said that “The project is positive for Kockums in several respects, and we are naturally proud to have been chosen. It is highly significant that such a professional customer, after exhaustive analysis, should choose the Kockums concept for its next-generation vessels. We look forward to successful cooperation with the company. It is an important export order for us.”