On June 9, the first 1250-passenger Ro-Pax vessel for the Qiongzhou Strait, built by Wuchang Shipbuilding for Hainan Port & Shipping Holding Co., Ltd., commenced construction smoothly. This new-generation Ro-Pax vessel, integrating intelligence, green features, and high comfort, has officially entered the construction phase, marking a substantive and critical step in the upgrade and replacement of Qiongzhou Strait shipping equipment.
Leaders and guests from Hainan Port & Shipping Holding Co., Ltd., Guangdong Provincial Port & Shipping Group Co., Ltd., Wuchang Shipbuilding, China Classification Society, and Shanghai Merchant Ship Design and Research Institute attended the keel-laying ceremony. Witnessed by all parties, Wang Ran, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Hainan Port & Shipping Holding Co., Ltd., Zhang Daowu, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Guangdong Provincial Port & Shipping Group Co., Ltd., and Chi Benbin, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and General Manager of Wuchang Shipbuilding, activated the project commencement command device.
Wang Ran stated that currently, the closed-loop operation of the Hainan Free Trade Port has been fully initiated, elevating the level of openness to a new height. The passenger and cargo traffic volume across the strait is steadily climbing, imposing higher standards and stricter requirements on shipping support capabilities. The commencement of this new vessel is a key measure for Hainan Port & Shipping to meet the requirements of closed-loop operation, upgrade core transport capacity, and enhance service levels. It is also a key project to improve passenger travel experience and promote the high-quality development of strait shipping. Hainan Port & Shipping will establish an efficient and coordinated communication mechanism to promptly address various difficult issues during the construction process, ensuring smooth progress; form a professional supervision team to follow up on-site throughout the process, strictly controlling the entire workflow of ship construction, equipment installation, process control, testing, and acceptance, striving for excellence to build a benchmark vessel.
Chi Benbin stated that as a key shipbuilding enterprise under CSSC, Wuchang Shipbuilding has been deeply involved in the manufacturing of high-end Ro-Pax vessels and special engineering ships for many years. Undertaking this construction task is not only a recognition of Wuchang Shipbuilding’s comprehensive strength by the client but also an important practice for Wuchang Shipbuilding to serve the national strategy. After the project commences, Wuchang Shipbuilding will gather high-quality resources from the entire plant to form a dedicated project team, strictly follow the CCS classification rules and design standards, refine the construction plan, and collaborate with the design institute and classification society to overcome technical difficulties. Through lean construction, we aim to build a benchmark vessel, ensuring the new ship is delivered on time with guaranteed quality and quantity. In the future, we also look forward to cooperating with partners like Hainan Port & Shipping.
According to reports, the project involves the construction of two 1250-passenger Ro-Pax vessels. Designed by Shanghai Merchant Ship Design and Research Institute, both vessels will be classed with China Classification Society (CCS) and will be deployed on the core Haikou-Xuwen route in the future, undertaking the crucial task of transporting passengers and vehicles between Guangdong and Hainan. The vessel has an overall length of 135 meters, a beam of 21 meters, a depth of 6.6 meters, a design draft of 4.35 meters, and a design speed of 15.5 knots. It features a steel hull, raked stem, bulbous bow, transom stern, and utilizes podded propulsion systems with twin bow thrusters. It holds notations for new energy vehicles, smart features, and methanol-ready design. Standards for stability, firefighting, and lifesaving are aligned with international seagoing vessels, with comprehensive performance significantly superior to traditional ship types.
Compared to existing traditional Ro-Pax vessels in the Qiongzhou Strait, the new vessel achieves comprehensive innovation across four dimensions: intelligence, carrying capacity, environmental friendliness, and /comfort.
Smart Empowerment, Moving Away from Traditional Manual Modes: The entire vessel is equipped with an integrated intelligent management and control system, enabling functions such as navigation assistance, remote monitoring of engine room equipment, intelligent energy consumption monitoring, and real-time hull status alerts. This moves away from traditional manual operation and inspection modes, significantly improving navigation efficiency and operational safety while reducing operation and maintenance costs.
Capacity Upgrade, Adapting to Diverse Transport Needs: The large passenger capacity of 1250 will effectively expand the strait’s passenger transport capacity, greatly alleviating congestion during holidays and comprehensively enhancing the passenger crossing experience. The vessel is equipped with three vehicle decks featuring a variable lane design, capable of carrying over 230 vehicles of various types, including cars, RVs, vans, trucks, and semi-trailers. All three vehicle decks support the passage of lithium battery new energy vehicles, with dedicated loading areas and safety protection facilities, meeting the rapidly growing demand for new energy vehicle transport across the strait.
Low-Carbon and Eco-Friendly, Adhering to Green Shipping Concepts: The new vessel reserves space for future clean energy retrofitting, making long-term operations more low-carbon and energy-efficient, deeply practicing the national “dual carbon” development strategy, and safeguarding the ecological foundation of the Qiongzhou Strait with green shipping.
Detail Optimization, Safe and Comfortable Travel: The vessel features a modern and imposing exterior design. Internally, it creates diverse functional areas such as observation lounges, leisure bars, business class cabins, and standard passenger cabins, all finished with high-grade decoration standards aligned with international Ro-Pax vessels. Hull performance and the layout separating people and vehicles are optimized based on the strait’s operational characteristics. Safety systems including firefighting, lifesaving, and vehicle lashing are more comprehensively configured. The passenger cabin environment has also been humanized to make travel more comfortable and transport support more reliable.
The Qiongzhou Strait, as a golden waterway connecting Guangdong and Hainan, is a key hub ensuring people’s livelihood travel and material circulation, and a core transportation lifeline for the closed-loop operation of the Hainan Free Trade Port, carrying significant strategic importance. The smooth commencement of the first 1250-passenger Ro-Pax vessel is an important achievement of multi-party collaboration and concerted development.
Wuchang Shipbuilding will take this project as a crucial opportunity to strengthen safety control, improve operational efficiency, practice green and low-carbon principles, and enhance technological innovation. It will fully assist the shipowner in optimizing fleet structure, upgrading service quality, and polishing the shipping brand, working together to build the Qiongzhou Strait into a safe, smooth, smart, green, high-quality, and efficient modern first-class shipping channel. At the same time, we look forward to deepening all-round cooperation with the shipowner, jointly exploring new paths for smart shipping and green shipping development, empowering high-quality development of the marine economy, and contributing to building China into a maritime powerhouse.
