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China Shipbuilding Breaks Ground for new Shipbuilding Yard in Shanghai

China building new shipbuilding facility in Shanghai
CSSC's current shipbuilding facility in Shanghai will be replaced by the new yard (file photo)

Published Jan 5, 2021 8:33 PM by The Maritime Executive

China Shipbuilding Corporation broke ground on Monday for the construction of its newest shipyard which will be located on Changxing Island in Shanghai. It is the second phase of a project that is transforming the shipbuilding operations in Shanghai relocating older facilities to the new state-of-the-art shipbuilding plant.

CSSC is planning to invest $2.8 billion in the development of the new shipbuilding facility. The construction project for the yard for Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding will include a building for R&D and design as well as construction facilities. They are creating a hull joint workshop, a curved section assembly and welding workshop, an outfitting module center, a painting workshop, an indoor dock, an open-air dock, harbor basin, and an outfitting wharf.

The new shipbuilding facility, which will be over 100 acres in size, will have an annual production capacity of six special ships. CSSC expects that the construction of the new yard will be completed by 2023.

During the groundbreaking ceremony, they highlighted the strategic cooperation between CSSC and the Shanghai Municipal Government, to promote the optimization and adjust the layout of the shipbuilding enterprises in Shanghai. The goal is to transform Shanghai’s Changxing Island with the creation of intelligent production lines and as a center for green shipbuilding technology. They said that they hoped to create a world-leading integrated assembly, system modules, and production facility.

The Jiangnan Shipyard, another one of CSSC’s shipbuilding yards, had been relocated to the island in 2008.

In 2019, China finalized the re-merger of the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) and the China Shipbuilding Industry Company (CSIC) to create the state-owned shipbuilding group. At the time, China said the group would become the world's largest shipbuilder by sales and backlog, with a 20 percent share of the global market, $110 billion in assets, and more than 300,000 employees.