Posted on December 19, 2024
Shangang (Shandong) Offshore Equipment, a subsidiary of Chinese port operator the Shandong Port Group, has submitted its bid for the engineering design of a new offshore equipment manufacturing base at the facilities previously occupied by Huahai Shipbuilding.
The property covers 163 hectares including surrounding plots in Rizhao City in Shandong Province. The selected bidder will then have between 2025 and 2026 to devote to construction activities to ensure that the site can be used again.
According to publicly available information, Huahai Shipbuilding was established in 2007 and a joint venture company between Shandong Haiyue Import and Export, Tianjin Century Wanbao International Trade, Rizhao Dongyuan Shipbuilding, Raffles Shipping, and four other parties.
While it was still operational, the shipyard had facilities for the construction of tugs and cargo vessels under 100,000 DWT and had an annual shipbuilding capacity of 500,000.
After the Chinese shipbuilding industry entered a recession in 2009, the company experienced difficulty maintaining operations. Beginning in the second half of 2014, some of Huahai Shipbuilding’s assets, including marine steel, ship equipment and even ships under construction, needed to be auctioned off to pay off the company’s debts.
In October 2015, the Rizhao Intermediate People’s Court ruled that Huahai Shipbuilding was bankrupt, and according to the announcement at that time, the company had liquidated assets amounting to CNY300 million (US$41 million) and liabilities of CNY3 billion (US$410 million). In 2016, Huahai Shipbuilding was auctioned off for land use rights, sea area use rights, above-ground buildings, equipment and inventory parts located in the east of Shugang Road, Hushan Town, Lanshan District.
In November 2023, Shangang (Shandong) Offshore Equipment was established on the original site Huahai Shipbuilding. The Shandong Port Group plans to expand the existing facility as part of the creation of a 1,600-hectare offshore equipment industrial park.
Facilities at the industrial park will include a digital assembly centre, a digital surface processing centre, a segmented workshop, berth, a 1,750-metre wharf, and a new floating dock. Shandong Port expects the facility will have an annual production of eight 50,000DWT vessels and fifty 100,000DWT vessels.
