On May 8th, South Korean medium-sized shipbuilding company Daxian Shipbuilding successfully delivered and held its maiden voyage ceremony for the 1000 ton hybrid aquatic science research vessel "Exploration 8" built by the National Academy of Fishery Sciences (NIFS) of South Korea.

The total length of "Exploration 8" is 58.73 meters, with a width of 11.8 meters, a maximum speed of 16 knots, and a tonnage of 1057 tons, which is about 3.7 times the current 283 ton survey vessel of the National Academy of Fishery Sciences in South Korea.

It is worth mentioning that "Exploration 8" is the first environmentally friendly vessel among all survey vessels of the Korean Academy of Fishery Sciences to install a nitrogen oxide (NOx) reduction device (SCR) in a hybrid propulsion system that combines diesel engines and batteries. While improving energy efficiency, it can also reduce greenhouse gas and atmospheric pollutant emissions.

Da Xian Shipbuilding stated that after successfully building this environmentally friendly hybrid investigation ship, the company will use it as a basis to further promote product diversification by applying environmentally friendly hybrid propulsion systems and other environmental technologies in the construction of small and medium-sized ordinary commercial ships.

Daxian Shipbuilding was established in 1945, mainly building small and medium-sized ships. After the outbreak of the 2008 international financial crisis, Daxian Shipbuilding fell into a survival dilemma. In 2010, the company signed a self-discipline agreement with its largest shareholder, Export Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM), which holds 83.03% of the company's shares. Based on financing assistance from creditor banks, the company continued to make structural adjustments through strong measures such as auctioning assets, reducing personnel, and streamlining institutions.

At the end of 2020, Daxian Shipbuilding was acquired by a consortium led by Dongil Steel, the fourth largest steel wire manufacturer in South Korea, and became a subsidiary of Dongil Steel. It received comprehensive support from the "new owner" and continuously achieved results in competition with medium-sized Chinese and Japanese shipbuilding companies. At present, the company holds 18 new ship orders.

In order to break free from the fiercely competitive shipbuilding market, Daxian Shipbuilding has begun to explore a specialized strategy for special ship types, successfully enhancing the company's competitiveness. In recent years, under the slogan of "diversified ship types", Daxian Shipbuilding has not only continued to undertake orders for ordinary commercial ships such as regional container ships, but also successively undertaken large-scale orders from the government, such as coastal cruise ship modernization projects, dock landing ships (LPD), tuna seine ships, and stainless steel (SUS) oil tankers. Its business situation has gradually improved.

Since the beginning of this year, Daxian Shipbuilding has successfully delivered four new ships, laying the foundation for the company to accelerate the normalization of operations. In January, the company delivered one 1023TEU class branch line container ship and one 33000 deadweight ton SUS duplex stainless steel chemical transport ship consecutively. In February of this year, it also delivered the environmentally friendly LNG powered fishing internship ship "Xinhai" built for the School of Marine Science at Gyeongsang National University, marking that Daxian Shipbuilding has the technical response ability to build high-tech, high value-added, and environmentally friendly ships.