Shanghai's youngest shipbuilder delivered a 175,000-DWT (dead weight ton) bulk carrier, the largest of its kind ever made in China, to its Hong Kong-based owner Wednesday.
The ship, which is 280 meters long and 45 meters wide, is the first Shanghai-made carrier larger than 100,000 dead weight tons.
Source close to the deal said the buyer, Tai Chong Cheang Steamship Co Ltd, paid US$36 million to Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co Ltd for the carrier, which was christened CSK Fortune.
The 3-year-old ship builder has received 14 orders, including two signed yesterday with buyers from Hong Kong and Taiwan.
As the largest shipyard in China, Waigaoqiao is able to build much larger ships than its domestic counterparts due to its location on the Yangtze River, where the water is about 12 meters deep, said Hu Haijun, a company salesman.
"Local shipyards used to build ships capable of carrying less than 100,000 tons of freight as they're limited by the water depth of about six meters in the Huangpu River."
Currently, the shipyard has orders for 2.84 million tons of ships in hand and it's scheduled to complete 500,000 tons by the year's end.
Work is ongoing on the second phase of the Waigaoqiao shipyard, which will cover 2.1 million square meters and have an annual production capacity of 1.8 million tons.
(Eastday.com June 26, 2003)
