Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Three SOE giants jointly build South China's biggest shipyard
Tuesday, 23 June 2009
Three major central state-owned enterprises (SOEs), hina State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), Baosteel Group Corporation and China Shipping (Group) Company, have joined hands to establish CSSC Guangzhou Longxue Shipbuilding Company (CSSC-GLS), creating the largest shipbuilding enterprise in South China.
On June 19, an inauguration ceremony for CSSC-GLS and a ceremony to mark the undocking of new ships were simultaneously held at the Longxue shipbuilding base, where the Pearl River joins the sea in Nansha District of Guangzhou.
CSSC's General Manager Tan Zuojun said that despite the international financial crisis, Baosteel has continued to invest in the Longxue shipbuilding base having already injected capital into Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Company and the Changxing shipbuilding base.
Not only has China Shipping placed the first order to Longxue shipbuilding base, but the company has also firmly invested in the shipbuilding project. This has fully demonstrated the confidence of Baosteel and China Shipping in the Chinese shipbuilding industry's long-term development.
The three central SOEs collaborated to invest in the shipbuilding project, fully developing their respective advantages in upstream and downstream industries such as steel, shipbuilding and shipping to realize a connection between different industries.
As a result, a new industry development structure is taking shape with mutually beneficial interaction and advantages complementing each other among different industries. This has a profound significance in strengthening the Guangdong area's vitality in economic development.
The Longxue shipbuilding base is one of three major shipbuilding bases planned by the state. Located in the northeast of Longxue Island of Nansha District in Guangzhou City, it covers an area of 437 hectares, excluding the 72-hectare inner basin.
The shoreline of the base is 4,500 meters long, with a depth of 1,300 meters. CSSC-GLS is the core enterprise in the Longxue shipbuilding base. With a registered capital of 2.72 billion yuan, it is jointly funded by CSSC, Baosteel and China Shipping with their investment accounting for 60, 30 and 10 percent respectively.
The company occupies an area of 2.53 million square meters with a depth of 1.3 kilometers in its center. It has two extra large docks to construct vessels over 300,000 tons, four 600-ton gantry cranes and the world's most advanced production and processing equipment.
Its target products include various kinds of civilian ships such as very large crude carriers (VLCC), Suezmax tankers, Aframax tankers, very large ore carriers (VLOC), bulk carriers and large container ships.
Its first phase shipbuilding capacity is designed to deliver 20 vessels or 2.12 million DWT (deadweight tons) per year. After the capacity expansion project is completed, shipbuilding capacity will reach 3.5 million DWT per year.
The company has currently secured orders for 18 vessels with a total of 4.16 million DWT. Delivery is scheduled for the end of 2011. By the end of May 2009, construction of a total of seven ships of VLCC of 308,000 DWT and VLOC of 230,000 DWT had already started. Four vessels have been dry-docked.
Source: People's Daily Online
