Samkang M&T, First Domestic Export of Offshore Wind Substructures to Japan

[Asia Economy Reporter Minyoung Kim] Samkang M&T, a subsidiary of SK Ecoplant, has signed the first-ever contract in Korea to supply offshore wind turbine supporting structures (jackets) in Japan.

Offshore wind substructure jacket manufactured by Samkang M&T (Provided by SK Ecoplant)

On the 26th, Samkang M&T announced that it had signed a contract with Japan's NSE (Nippon Steel Engineering Co., Ltd) to manufacture jacket components (Jacket TP, Leg, Skirt Sleeve) for a 220MW wind farm to be installed in the Kitakyushu (Hibikinada) area.

NSE is a subsidiary of Nippon Steel Corp., Japan's largest steel manufacturer, providing eco-friendly energy solutions such as wind power generation and hydrogen charging stations alongside plant construction.

This is the first time a Korean company has supplied offshore wind jackets to Japan. Samkang M&T plans to leverage this export to capture the Japanese offshore wind market, which aims to install approximately 45GW of offshore wind power by 2040. According to industry sources, the unit price for an 8MW offshore wind foundation structure is around 4 to 5 billion KRW. If Japan's offshore wind deployment proceeds as planned, the foundation structure market alone is expected to exceed 28 trillion KRW.

Samkang M&T, incorporated as a subsidiary of SK Ecoplant in September last year, is the first domestic company to export offshore wind foundation structures. By the end of last year, it had surpassed cumulative export sales of 300 million USD.

Lee Seung-chul, CEO of Samkang M&T, stated, "We plan to actively expand our presence not only in East Asian markets such as Japan and Taiwan but also in advanced offshore wind markets in North America and Europe."