Recently, the “Super Shipyard” project at Saudi Arabia’s Saudi King Port has achieved a major breakthrough: 17 ultra-large shiplift platforms have been successfully installed with high precision. This marks a crucial progress in the main structure of the world’s largest ship lift system jointly built by China and Saudi Arabia, laying a solid foundation for the full construction of the world’s leading “super shipyard”.
The Saudi King Port project is a key component of Saudi Arabia’s “Vision 2030” national reform program. King Salman personally laid the foundation stone and christened it. Upon completion, the project will become the world’s largest shipbuilding and repair base, capable of building and repairing a wide range of vessels, including supertankers, and offshore platforms. Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery (ZPMC) is responsible for the manufacture of key components, including the dock gates, shiplift systems, launching barges, pontoons, and dry dock towing systems for dry docks No. 2, 4, and 5.
The shiplift system installed this time integrates ship hoisting, transfer, and traction functions, boasting a world-leading 25,000-ton ship lifting capacity. The massive shiplift platform required complex hoisting and installation techniques, necessitating high technical requirements. The complete system includes 17 shiplift platforms, 56 hoisting winches, 98 transfer trolleys and transfer power vehicles, and a traction system.
ZPMC Group’s on-site technical guidance team, working with the client, overcame the complex and volatile Middle Eastern climate, including high temperatures, strong winds, and desert geological conditions, addressing transportation and installation challenges posed by the platform’s enormous size and weight, successfully completing this crucial milestone.
In the next stage, ZPMC will continue to create high-quality projects with “ZPMC solutions”, “ZPMC products” and “ZPMC standards”, set a new benchmark for the global marine equipment manufacturing industry, and make new contributions to establishing a new model for jointly building the “Belt and Road” with the “ZPMC brand”.