On May 19, Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) Co., Ltd. officially opened its new plant on Changxing Island, becoming an important support for Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding’s progress towards becoming a world-class marine equipment manufacturing enterprise.
Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding’s new plant is located along the south coast of Shanghai’s Changxing Island, with an overall construction area of 431.8 hectares and a planned investment of RMB 18 billion (US$2.498 billion).
The construction area of the first phase is 214.6 hectares, with a planned investment of RMB 8 billion (about US$1.110 billion). The project mainly includes R&D and design building, hull joint workshop, curved segment assembly and welding workshop, outfitting parts module center, coating workshop, No.1 indoor dock, No.2 open-air dock, harbor pool, outfitting wharf, etc., with a planned construction area of 460,000 square meters, which will form the production capacity of building 6 special ships per year. After completion of the project, Hudong-Zhonghua’s production capacity will be greatly enhanced, and the construction capacity of large LNG carriers will be increased from the current annual output of 6 to more than 10.
Hudong-Zhonghua said that the new plant has achieved rationalization of ship section and block division, streamlined and automated production, palletized management, integrated “hull, outfitting and coating”, forming the advantages of general assembly shipbuilding, effectively ensuring product quality and improving operational safety. At the same time, it has formed a staggered competition with existing large-scale ship assembly bases in China, guiding the transformation and development of the domestic shipbuilding industry.
As a key project to promote the high-quality development of China’s shipbuilding and offshore engineering industry, Hudong-Zhonghua new plant will be built into complete intelligent workshop system integrating intelligent design, automated manufacturing, and big data management, using 5G+Internet dispatching, robot welding, and Internet of Things operations. It will cover a complete intelligent workshop system including intelligent units, intelligent production lines, and sensing systems, and achieve all-round intelligent production process management and control; it will become a world-leading intelligent and digital shipbuilding company with streamlined personnel, efficient processes, energy conservation and environmental protection, excellent quality, and realize a leap-forward improvement in core shipbuilding capabilities.
On January 4, 2021, the second phase of the construction of China State Shipbuilding Corporation Changxing Shipbuilding Base officially started, marking the full start of the construction of Hudong-Zhonghua’s overall relocation project (Hudong-Zhonghua new factory).
On September 29, 2021, the most important production facility of the new plant, No.2 Dockyard, was started by CCCC Sanhang Bureau and completed in October 2023. It is worth mentioning that during the construction of the new plant, CCCC Sanhang Bureau is responsible for the project of 2 large docks, and now the No.2 dock has been successfully delivered and the main structure of the No.1 dock has also been completed.
On November 3, 2022, the first large-scale equipment was installed in the hull joint workshop. The workshop is one of the landmark digital production workshops of the Changxing Phase II project. The workshop is planned to integrate intelligent warehouses, automated cutting and welding production lines, big data management, Internet dispatching, Internet of Things operation and other full-process intelligent production systems.
On February 13, 2023, the curved section welding workshop commenced construction. As the core production facility of Hudong-Zhonghua’s new plant, this workshop is a three-span single-story industrial building. Upon completion, it will significantly enhance Hudong-Zhonghua’s production capacity for its main ship types and lay a foundation for the company’s LNG production capacity doubling strategy. In December 2024, the workshop’s span extension project was completed.
On January 2, 2025, the first LNG carrier was laid keel at the Phase II Project of Changxing Shipbuilding Base; on March 3, 2025, the Hudong-Zhonghua Technology Center was relocated to the R&D and Design Building of the new plant.
On May 19, 2025, Hudong-Zhonghua announced that the new plant was officially put into use.