Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE) is integrating ESG into a wider scope of its business with efforts to preserve the marine ecosystem by building a vessel that has minimized underwater noise emissions.

KSOE announced that Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries (HSHI), one of its shipbuilding arms, has built and successfully delivered a 115,000-ton crude carrier on March 31, which has obtained the Silent E-Notation from DNV, an international accredited registrar and classification society.

The underwater noise-related certificate has been applied on passenger ships until now, and this is the first time that a cargo ship has obtained this certificate.

Underwater noise is mainly generated by ocean-going ships and transmitted through the sea, which has been considered one of the main harmful sources of marine pollution caused by ships together with exhaust gases and contaminated water.

In particular, the noise generated by the ship’s propeller has been pointed out as the most serious cause of disturbance in the marine ecosystem as it produces a range of sound frequencies which overlap with the frequencies produced by dolphins and other marine mammals.

As concerns over the underwater noise are ever-increasing due to the continuous growth in ships' size, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is discussing how to address this issue, aiming to come up with practical regulatory measures.

Also, as government-level regulations on underwater noise for maritime environmental protection are under active consideration across multiple jurisdictions including Canada, the US and the EU, KSOE has been receiving many newbuilding inquiries from shipowners about eco-friendly, low-noise ships with relevant certificates obtained from a classification society.

Starting last year, KSOE has also been working on the development of "technologies for monitoring and reducing underwater noise generated by ships" in conjunction with the Korea Research Institute of Ships & Ocean Engineering (KRISO) and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of Korea.

“This notation is meaningful in that we have not just successfully built an eco-friendly ship but also developed and applied a new technology on the ship for preserving the marine ecosystem,” said a source from KSOE. "As there is a growing call for action on ESG from the market, we will do our utmost for market expansion by securing advanced technologies for better ESG performance."