Inchcape bets on Korea's global shipbuilding push, growing naval MRO market

British maritime services giant Inchcape Shipping Services is stepping up its presence in South Korea, betting on the country's shipbuilding strength and growing naval maintenance business to drive expansion.

“We will continue to invest and grow here within Korea. It’s a very key market for us,” David Pratt, Inchcape’s regional CEO for Asia Pacific, told The Korea Herald in an interview in Seoul on Friday.

“Korea is a world leader in shipbuilding with major ports and strong maritime technology and it is becoming more important for naval support too," he said.

The nearly 180-year-old company, which operates in more than 60 countries and covers around 85 percent of the world's commercial ports, is positioning itself as a global operational partner for Korean shipbuilders and shipping companies.

“When a Korean company expands globally, it needs a trusted partner with people on the ground and local knowledge wherever its vessels call,” Pratt said.

Inchcape has expanded its Korean network from its first Seoul office in 2006 to Busan in March 2024 and Geoje in November 2025, bringing its services closer to the country's major shipyards. It now handles about 1,800 vessel port calls annually across 23 Korean ports, up roughly 12 percent since 2024.

Pratt emphasized the importance of local expertise and reliable information, saying Inchcape's global network keeps customers informed about overseas developments and coordinates operations across ports.

He cited a floating production, storage and offloading vessel that departed a shipyard in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province, for Brazil in 2025. Inchcape's Korean team spent several months at the shipyard coordinating crew, medical staff and documentation before departure. The company subsequently supported the voyage at key locations, including Mauritius, Namibia and Singapore.

Located near the major shipyards of Hanwha Ocean and Samsung Heavy Industries, Inchcape's Geoje office strengthens its ability to support shipbuilding and offshore projects.

“Korea builds some of the world's most advanced ships. Our job is to make sure everything around them runs smoothly, from the yard to the first port call and beyond,” Pratt said.

Beyond commercial shipping, Inchcape is looking to capitalize on South Korea's expanding naval shipbuilding and maintenance, repair and overhaul market.

"Korea has been building naval assets for decades," said Nicolas Wauters, vice president of government services at Inchcape. "They have the expertise, the strategic location … For sure there is definitely a promising future, and that's also why we are getting closer to Korea, closer to the shipyards."

As naval deployments and exercises increase across the Indo-Pacific, Wauters said opportunities extend beyond building warships to supporting their maintenance and repair throughout their operational lives.

He said he is seeing growing interest from partner navies in Korea's MRO capacity.

"It's not just only building the ships. Ships need to be maintained, need to be repaired," he said. "It's all about the capacity and availability, and that's what for our clients is super important."

Inchcape's focus on Korea comes as the Asia-Pacific region accounts for a substantial share of its global operations.

The region represented 46 percent of the company's worldwide port calls in 2025, up from around 43 percent in 2022. Inchcape handles around 3,600 port calls a month across Asia-Pacific, with Southeast Asia recording roughly 30 percent growth between 2022 and 2025.

Pratt identified Southeast Asia, Japan and Korea as key growth markets for the company.

Inchcape is also adopting digital tools and artificial intelligence to improve efficiency, though Pratt said technology cannot replace experienced port agents.

“At the end of the day, is AI going to replace the agent's role? To be honest, no, we need to have eyes and ears directly on the ground,” Pratt said. "For us, it's really using AI as a tool to support and further improve what we're already doing internally.”

Port agents still need to board vessels, coordinate with port authorities and respond directly to unexpected operational challenges, he said.

Wauters added that AI-based predictions involving shipping routes, weather and port access are not always accurate, making firsthand local information particularly important for naval operations.

“Technology manages the routine. People manage the exceptional,” he said.