Digital Shipyard Market Trends

Growth Driver

• Increasing naval defense digitalization mandates: Trends reflect a rising demand to overhaul traditional dockyard systems. A contributing factor to these trends is the rise of geopolitical tensions across the world. To highlight how defense sectors globally have prioritized the use of digital technologies to bolster naval asset lifecycle management, recent projects must be analyzed. For instance, in 2023, NATO announced the launch of the DIANA-backed projects that focuses on modular ship maintenance supported by AI. Meanwhile in India, the NIIO successfully implemented a digital framework to enhance efficiency across the dockyards. Additionally, the market analysis highlights that defense-related naval digitization is set to expand throughout the forecast period.
• Surge in global investment toward green shipbuilding standards is forcing digital integration: The worldwide push towards the net-zero emission targets in 2050 has created a greater push to integrate digitalization in ship maintenance, production, and retrofitting. Regional mandates such as the EU Fit for 55 mandates add to the push. As of 2023, more than 100 major global shipyards were reported to be actively integrating digital solutions to usher in design indices that were energy-efficient as per the European Maritime Safety Agency. The environmental regulations affect all global contracts, leading to greater digital twins in ship repair. The green compliance directives are slated to ensure a sustained growth of the market throughout the forecast timeline.

Technological Trends Reshaping the Global Digital Shipyard Market

The global digital shipyard market is experiencing rapid growth due to advancements in digital technologies. In the current decade, the integration of AI and ML has been at the forefront of improving predictive maintenance of ships. With the throughput of maritime movements increasing over the years, the market scope to provide advanced smart solutions to proliferate the digital shipyard sector remains high. The table below highlights the use case of new technological advancements in the market:

Challenges

• Interoperability of legacy systems with new digital infrastructure: Despite the digital transformation, legacy systems continue to be prominent in multiple commercial as well as naval shipyards. The legacy systems cause impediments due to their incompatibility with digital platforms. An example of such a challenge was reported by the NIIO in 2023, of a 14-month delay faced by the Navy in India in its digital retrofit program due to a compatibility challenge. Additionally, in 2023, Lloyd's Register published a study highlighting that more than 45% of shipyards globally suffer from system incompatibility challenges.