HD Hyundai Heavy Industries has filed an appeal after a court rejected its injunction seeking to bar the disclosure of basic design materials for the Korean Next-Generation Destroyer (KDDX) project to its rival Hanwha Ocean (042660.KS).
According to legal sources Monday, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (329180.KS) submitted the appeal against the injunction rejection to the Seoul Central District Court the same day.
The KDDX project involves building six 6,000-ton mini Aegis destroyers with a budget of 7.8 trillion won. It has drawn attention as the first domestic destroyer project to construct both the hull and the Aegis system entirely using local technology.
Initially, Hanwha Ocean was responsible for the concept design, while HD Hyundai Heavy Industries handled the basic design. Although the company in charge of basic design typically wins contracts for the lead ship, controversy arose after HD Hyundai Heavy Industries employees were found guilty of photographing and leaking Hanwha Ocean's concept design. As a result, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) decided last December to select the contractor through competitive bidding.
DAPA was set to distribute the request for proposal (RFP) for the KDDX basic design to HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hanwha Ocean, the two designated competitive bidders. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries filed the injunction, arguing that the KDDX RFP materials contained its trade secrets and should not be shared with Hanwha Ocean. However, the court rejected the request on the 8th of this month.
