With the shipbuilding industry welcoming a new round of prosperity, a number of shipbuilding enterprises are actively enhancing shipbuilding capacity. China’s major private shipbuilding enterprises Jiangsu New Times Shipbuilding is also actively promoting its shipbuilding capacity expansion program.
With over 100 ships in hand, New Times Shipbuilding spends 5 billion yuan ($690 million) on shipbuilding capacity expansion.
On July 24, New Times Shipbuilding released the ” First Information Publication of Environmental Impact Assessment of New Energy Ship Smart Project (Phase I) of Jiangsu New Times Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. on its official website. The company plans to invest 5 billion yuan ($690 million) in Jingjiang Economic and Technological Development Zone in Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province, to promote its new energy ship smart project (Phase I) project.
Public information shows that the New Times Shipbuilding New Energy Ship Intelligent Manufacturing Project Phase I covers a land area of about 900 mu, and intends to build intelligent manufacturing workshop and other plants, while the original coating room and intelligent production line is transformed. The project proposes to add new workshops, 110,000-volt substation, air pressure station, liquid oxygen gasification station, propane gasification station, LNG gasification station, CO2 gasification station and other plants and auxiliary rooms, purchase intelligent process and large-scale gantry cranes and other intelligent equipments, and propose to build a dock and an inland wharf respectively.
Sources have previously revealed that New Times Shipbuilding is planning to build a 700-meter-long mega drydock that will be able to build two very large crude carriers (VLCCs) side-by-side, as well as accommodate two VLCC semis side-by-side. Shipbroker Gibson said earlier that New Times Shipbuilding has finalized a series of orders for new ships with delivery dates set for 2027 and 2028 for the planned ultra-large drydock.
According to the official website, New Times Shipbuilding has the natural conditions to build all kinds of ships of 300,000-ton class, and currently has 3 drydocks each of 500,000-ton, 300,000-ton and 100,000-ton class, 3 large outfitting wharves as well as perfect supporting facilities such as intelligent segment manufacturing workshop and intelligent assembly and welding workshop for large diameter pipes of ships. After the completion of the new dock, New Times Shipbuilding will have four drydocks.
In recent years, New Times Shipbuilding takes the initiative to take the lead in the layout of new energy shipbuilding field, and actively carries out the production and development of LNG dual-fuel powered ships and LNG fuel tanks. In 2022, New Times Shipbuilding will carry out key technology research on 8,000m3 self-supporting prismatic LNG fuel tanks, focus on solving key technical difficulties such as structural lightweight design, load analysis, fatigue calculation and crack extension analysis of B fuel tanks, and break through the bottlenecks in the design and manufacture of B fuel tanks.
As the first private shipbuilding enterprise in China to build large-scale LNG dual-fuel powered ships, New Times Shipbuilding has made a strong return to the LNG dual-fuel powered new container ship market recently, with an estimated total order value of up to $6.2 billion (about RMB 49.9 billion), including Capital Maritime’s 6+4 8400 TEU container ships, SFL Corporation’s 5 16,800 TEU container ships, East Pacific Shipping’s 8+4 18,000 TEU container ships and Seaspan Corporation’s 5 16,800 TEU container ships.
As of the end of June this year, New Times Shipbuilding’s hand-held orders totaled 104 ships, with deliveries scheduled through 2028, according to Clarkson data.
In 2024, New Times Shipbuilding will closely focus on the goal of “improving quality and efficiency to ensure ship delivery, transformation and upgrading to promote development”, strengthen lean management, improve the production process, increase the forward movement of work processes, shorten the construction cycle, and take scientific and technological innovation as the driving force to further promote the product structure to high-tech ships, and the annual plan of New Times Shipbuilding is to complete and deliver 31 ships with about 3.92 million DWT in the whole ye