The “largest shipyard in Asia” of the past, Quanzhou Shipyard, is being revitalized under the leadership of Quanzhou Communications Group. In the nearly three years since resuming production, the shipyard has repaired over 100 vessels, with a total output value exceeding 300 million yuan.
According to Quanzhou Communications Group, Quanzhou Shipyard has been deeply engaged in the ship repair business, focusing on mainstream vessel types such as semi-submersible barges, offshore engineering ships, bulk carriers, and research vessels, providing full-chain, customized services including hull repair, system upgrades, green retrofitting, and special coating anti-corrosion. As of now, the cumulative number of vessels entering the shipyard for repairs has reached 109.
Quanzhou Shipyard is located in the Douwei Port Area on the south bank of Meizhou Bay. The main channel has a water depth of 30 meters, allowing 300,000-ton vessels to enter and exit freely in all weather conditions, making it one of the few natural deep-water harbors in China that neither freezes nor silts. The yard has 7 completed and under-construction docks, 2 docks for 300,000-ton vessels, a coastline of approximately 3.6 kilometers, excellent berthing conditions, 13 large outdoor cranes, 55 workshop cranes, and fully equipped production workshops such as mechanical and electrical comprehensive workshops and section assembly welding workshops. The shipyard’s excellent regional conditions and complete hardware facilities provide strong support for the efficient execution of ship repair operations.
Quanzhou Shipyard has always aimed for technological advancement, deeply cultivating the field of high-difficulty ship repair. It has successively overcome numerous technical challenges and achieved a number of landmark business results.
In terms of green ship retrofitting, it led the implementation of the province’s first major ship power battery system renovation project, successfully installing a 1560 kWh lithium iron phosphate battery system on the “Offshore Oil 551” vessel, achieving zero emissions when the ship is berthed on pure electric power, effectively reducing carbon emissions by 5%-10%, and filling the industry gap in ship power battery retrofitting in Fujian Province.
In terms of dock repair process innovation, the shipyard completed the special design of steel piers for the “Zhongtian 39” vessel in just 12 hours, innovatively applied the “pyramid-type” steel pier reinforcement process, laid a total of 791 dock piers (including 70 ultra-high steel piers), and precisely achieved millimeter-level docking control standards for the vessel.
In the field of high-end equipment maintenance, the shipyard overcame maintenance challenges for high-end marine equipment such as Wartsila and ABB, completed the second dock repair task for the research vessel “Xiangyanghong 03” to a high standard, and won high recognition and unanimous praise from the shipowner for its strong technical strength.
Quanzhou Shipyard adheres to the principle that “talent is the primary resource,” cooperating with maritime institutions such as Quanzhou Ocean Institute and Fujian Shipbuilding College. Relying on platforms like the shipyard’s project command headquarters, it carries out a series of research and practice activities, having hosted over 200 person-times of research and practice. The brand of cultivating marine engineering talents with shipyard characteristics is gradually being polished.
At the same time, the shipyard strictly implements various safety production management norms, has established a maritime patrol joint defense team and an emergency rescue team totaling 20 people, routinely conducts on-site safety inspections and hazard investigations, held 26 full-staff safety training sessions and 8 large-scale safety drills, customized standardized production operation procedures for the entire process, and comprehensively strengthened the safety production protection line of the yard.
It is understood that the predecessor of Quanzhou Shipyard was Quanzhou Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd., established in 2004 by the famous Quanzhou-born businessman Cai Tianzhen. In October 2007, Titan Petrochemicals acquired Quanzhou Shipbuilding from its board chairman Cai Tianzhen for 1.275 billion yuan. In 2019, Quanzhou Shipbuilding went into bankruptcy liquidation. Quanzhou Communications Group’s secondary subsidiary, Quanzhou Communications Real Estate Investment Group Co., Ltd., purchased the asset package of Quanzhou Shipbuilding for 1.207 billion yuan through auction in 2021.
Subsequently, on February 14, 2021, Quanzhou Communications Group signed a restructuring project agreement for Quanzhou Shipyard with the Hui’an County Government, planning to cooperate with Hui’an County to invest 2 billion yuan in restructuring Quanzhou Shipyard and introduce industrial formats such as ship repair, shipbuilding, offshore engineering manufacturing, and logistics. In April of the same year, Quanzhou Communications Real Estate Investment Group Co., Ltd. established a wholly-owned subsidiary, Quanzhou Communications Ship Heavy Industry Development Co., Ltd., responsible for managing and operating the Quanzhou Shipyard project.
In February 2023, Fujian Boyang Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd. won the bid for the ship repair segment of the Quanzhou Shipyard project through public tender. In September of the same year, with the research vessel “Xiangyanghong 03” and the offshore engineering vessel “Offshore Oil 691” successively entering the port, the ship repair segment of Quanzhou Shipyard was officially launched, achieving resumption of production after more than a decade of dormancy.
From a hundred vessels entering the yard for repairs to a steady breakthrough of 300 million yuan in output value; from robust hardware support to meticulous craftsmanship, Quanzhou Shipyard uses numbers as its pen and hard work as its ink, writing a brilliant report card for marine equipment maintenance and support. In the future, Quanzhou Shipyard will adhere to its original commitment to quality, continue to deeply cultivate the main business of ship repair and construction, build a strong professional talent echelon, deeply integrate into the overall development of the port-side marine industry with practical responsibility, focus on technological innovation to build a green and technology-oriented marine equipment maintenance and support base, fill the industrial gap in Quanzhou’s intelligent offshore engineering equipment manufacturing field, empower the high-quality development of Quanzhou’s marine economy, and continue to write new brilliant chapters in the deep blue sea.
