Booming Shanghai plans world's largest shipyard
Reuters, 08.13.03, 5:46 AM ET
forbes.com
SHANGHAI, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Shanghai plans to dismantle a 130-year-old shipyard and spend about 30 billion yuan ($3.6 billion) building the world's largest, shipping officials said on Wednesday.
The China State Ship-building Corp (CSSC), the state giant that runs the venerable Jiangnan yard, inked a pact with the city in July to build a new yard along an eight-km (five-mile) stretch of the Yangtze.
When completed, the Changxing Island shipyard should be able to assemble a total dead-weight tonnage each year of eight million tonnes, said Guo Xiwen, the CSSC director in charge of the project.
"We're looking at a timeframe of eight to 10 years, but by 2010 we'll finish the main portion," he told Reuters.
The completed Changxing base will allow Shanghai to quadruple its shipbuilding capacity to a dead-weight tonnage of 12 million tonnes a year by 2015, CSSC general manager Chen Xiaojin was quoted as saying in a statement.
Twelve million tonnes would just surpass the capacity of Ulsan, South Korea, currently the world's largest shipyard, Guo said.
China's ship-making industry, the world's third largest and concentrated in the country's booming commercial stronghold, has bounded in recent years, backed by dynamic growth in exports and a galloping economy.
Mainland shipyards have been threatening the leading positions of South Korea and Japan as the world's top two ship builders, analysts say.
The country now commands 8.3 percent of the global shipbuilding market, according to CSSC. |
