Recently, the bid results for the “Construction Project for a New 1,600-Ton Gantry Crane in Dock No. 1 at Changxing Shipyard, Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) Co., Ltd.” has been released.
The announcement disclosed that CSSC Ninth Design & Research Institute (CSSC NDRI) successfully won the bid for the project with a bid price of RMB 145,790,000. According to the previous tender announcement, CSSC NDRI is expected to complete and deliver the project by April 30, 2026.
In order to further increase production capacity and optimize product layout, Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding officially moved to the new site on May 19, 2025, and held a flag-raising ceremony at Donghua Square in the new plant on Changxing Island on the same day, marking the official opening of the new plant. The construction of a new 1,600-ton gantry crane means that the shipbuilding capacity of the new plant will be further improved.
The overall relocation project of Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Hudong-Zhonghua’s new plant) was initiated on January 4, 2021. In October 2023, the No. 2 dock, the most important production facility in the new plant, was completed. On January 2, 2025, the new plant welcomed its first LNG carrier launched. On March 3, Hudong-Zhonghua Technical Center was relocated to the R&D and Design Building of the new plant. On May 19, Hudong-Zhonghua announced the official commissioning of the new plant area.
According to public information, the new plant of Hudong-Zhonghua is located along the south bank of Changxing Island in Shanghai, with a total construction area of 431.8 hectares and a planned investment of RMB 18 billion. The first-phase construction covers an area of 214.6 hectares with a planned investment of RMB 8 billion.
The construction projects mainly include an R&D and design building, a hull joint workshop, a curved section assembly and welding workshop, an outfitting module center, a painting workshop, No. 1 indoor dock, No. 2 open-air dock, a basin, and outfitting wharves, etc. The planned building area is 460,000 square meters, which will form an annual production capacity of 6 special-purpose ships. After the completion of the project, Hudong-Zhonghua’s production capacity will be greatly improved, and its capability to build large LNG carriers will be increased from the current 6 ships per year to more than 10 ships.
Hudong-Zhonghua’s new plant adopts a modern general assembly shipbuilding model. By means of optimizing processes, precision management, intelligent manufacturing and other measures, it realizes streamlined block production, palletized management and integration of “hull-outfitting-painting”, so as to improve quality and safety. The new plant will form differentiated competition with existing domestic bases and promote the transformation and upgrading of the industry.