Guangzhou has received the go-ahead to begin construction on a big ship-production base that could help advance the southern China city?s status as a major Chinese ship producer.
The first phase of Longxue Ship Production Base, formally approved by the National Development and Reform Commission early this week, includes the construction of two dry docks, each of which are equipped to build a 308,000 dwt tanker up to 330 metres long. The project, which will cost more than 6.2 billion yuan, is expected to be operational by 2009 and will be the largest ship production base in Guangdong.
Located on Longxue Island at the mouth of the Pearl River, the new facility is designed to be able to build 12 deep-sea container vessels and another 12 deep-sea oil tankers annually. The project covers an area of 556.5 hectares, with a shoreline of more than 4,500 metres. Officials expect it to achieve turnover of some 8 billion yuan annually.
With the completion of the project, Guangdong's ship-building capacity will reach 3 million tons in 2010 and more than 4 million tons in 2015. Currently, Guangzhou Shipyard International Co Ltd, Wenchong Shipyard and Huangpu Shipyard, Guangdong's three major shipyards have the capacity to produce up to 800,000 tons of ships a year. None on them presently have the capacity to build a single vessel of more than 60,000dwt.
