Recently, Chizhou Tianyu Shipbuilding and Hong Kong Word Engineering Company Limited successfully signed a construction agreement for a 64.8-meter Anchor Handling Tug Supply vessels (AHTS). This is the first foreign trade vessel order secured by Guichi Shipbuilding Industrial Base in 2026, marking a new step forward for the base in the field of high-end marine engineering equipment manufacturing.
It is reported that the 64.8-meter AHTSs signed this time has a total length of 64.8 meters, a beam of 16 meters, a maximum designed deadweight tonnage of 1,400 tons. This vessel is not only a key piece of equipment for deep-sea oil exploration, but also possesses outstanding shallow-water operation capabilities. It is equipped with DP2-class dynamic positioning and SMART (SHM, MHM, INF) functional notations, and is widely applicable to oil exploration hotspots in China, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and other global regions.
This AHTS vessel is a high-tech, high-value-added key piece of offshore engineering equipment, capable of efficiently undertaking comprehensive tasks such as deep-sea anchoring operations, drilling platform towing, offshore supply, and emergency rescue support. With its superior power performance, high safety standards, and advanced intelligence, this vessel type plays a vital role in ensuring the efficiency and safety of marine engineering operations.
The aforementioned new shipbuilding project represents a renewed collaboration between the two parties. Previously, in September 2025, the two companies signed an agreement to build two 12,000 DWT heavy-duty deck carriers, with a contract value of 140 million yuan, setting a new record for both the value and tonnage of a single vessel export transaction in Chizhou. Construction on the first vessel commenced smoothly in January 2026.
Guichi Shipbuilding Industrial Base is one of the three major riverside shipbuilding bases in Anhui Province. It currently houses eight shipbuilding and repair companies and is the largest civilian shipbuilding cluster upstream of Nanjing. It is also a key provincial-level industrial cluster developing both inland waterway green and intelligent ships and specialized marine engineering equipment, each with a value exceeding 10 billion yuan. The base has formed a complete industrial closed loop, from international order taking, design and R&D, construction and inspection to export delivery.
In 2025, the base received orders for 25 foreign trade vessels, totaling 623 million yuan, and maintained steady growth in foreign trade.