Bankrupt Chinese Yard Relaunches Under New Ownership

 

China's shipbuilding industry has been expanding capacity as it takes on more and more global market share, and investors and conglomerates have been getting in on the opportunity by reactivating old yards that went bankrupt after the last downturn. Buyers get ready-made drydocks, gantry cranes and fabrication plants for a fraction of the time and cost of building a greenfield yard. The latest instance is the restart of the Nanjing Dongze Shipyard on the Yangtze, which began with a judicial sale of the plant earlier this year. 

Nanjing Dongze was an independent yard on the northeastern outskirts of the city of Nanjing, on the Yangtze's right descending bank. Modest in size, it delivered smaller cargo vessels until 2017, when it ceased operations and began leasing out its facilities, according to EWorldShip. 

By early 2025, the firm had accumulated about $50 million in unpaid debts, and it filed a petition for bankruptcy reorganization. A local court approved the petition in May, stipulating that a buyer would acquire the company for zero payment on condition that it settle the firm's outstanding debts. 

A division of China Merchants Shipbuilding Industry Group acquired the firm and agreed to pay $33 million to the yard's creditors. In return, the buyer gained two slipways for ships up to 50,000 dwt, along with acreage and half a mile of shoreline on the Yangtze. The new site complements China Merchants' existing facility in Nanjing, Jinling Shipyard.

The rebranded Nanjing Dongze Shipbuilding launched its first newbuild under new ownership in mid-December. The chemical tanker SC Emerald is the inaugural ship the facility has launched as a division of China Merchants, and photos suggest that many more are to come. 

China holds more than half of global shipbuilding market share, and Nanjing Dongze is just one of a dozen-plus Chinese yards that have rebooted over the last several years to meet demand. In late 2024, new orders led to a restart at the giant Rongsheng Shipyard in Nantong, reviving a mega-yard capable of producing about one percent of global tonnage on its own.