A newly operational shipbuilding enterprise in Wuxue City has secured a major order from a Dubai shipowner. On June 12, Hubei Guangji New Energy Shipbuilding Group Co., Ltd. signed a contract in Wuxue City with EMARAT MARITIME (L.L.C), a world-renowned shipping company from Dubai, UAE, for the construction of 3+3 900-TEU offshore feeder container cargo ships. This is the first international order since the establishment of Guangji New Energy Shipbuilding, marking the successful entry of Wuxue City’s intelligent ship manufacturing industry into the international market.
The 900-TEU container cargo ship signed this time is the main ship type for current offshore feeder container cargo transport, with a deadweight tonnage of 12,200 tons. The ship type was designed by Shanghai Ship Design Institute and will be built in the modern plant area of Guangji New Energy Shipbuilding in Longping Town, Wuxue City. Among the six ships, the first three will be delivered in June, August, and October 2028 respectively, and the subsequent three will be built successively according to the shipowner’s needs.
“As the largest state-owned shipyard in Hubei Province, Guangji New Energy Shipbuilding has installed globally advanced intelligent equipment and facilities,” said Tao Yongjun, Chairman of Hubei Guangji New Energy Shipbuilding Group Co., Ltd. The company will adopt advanced equipment such as modern intelligent cutting and machine welding, as well as the “integrated hull-outfitting-painting” shipbuilding process, achieving intelligent operation from steel plate cutting to block welding and hull assembly.
Wuxue City boasts a unique high-quality deep-water port along the golden waterway of the Yangtze River, known as the “Gateway to Eastern Hubei, First Port into Chu.” Its cargo throughput ranks among the top in the province, making it an important 100-million-ton-class port on the Yangtze River. Wuxue has a profound shipbuilding industry foundation and a complete industrial chain. Since the establishment of a state-owned shipyard in 1954, it has had the capability to independently build ocean-going cargo ships since 1993. In recent years, Wuxue City has focused on the development direction of intelligent and new energy ships, building the Hubei Province Intelligent New Energy Ship Industrial Park, and establishing a complete industrial system integrating R&D, construction, and supporting facilities, striving to build a high-standard, high-quality, modern green intelligent ship industry base in the Yangtze River basin.
Representatives from Dubai’s EMARAT MARITIME (L.L.C), shipowner Sara and Captain Nayata, made a special trip to Wuxue to attend the signing ceremony. “This is a decision we made after a comprehensive inspection of Guangji New Energy Shipbuilding,” Nayata commented highly. “After comparison, Guangji New Energy Shipbuilding has advanced construction concepts, an experienced shipbuilding management team, early delivery dates, and outstanding cost-performance advantages among international peers.”
Guangji New Energy Shipbuilding was established in August 2023 and is a wholly state-owned enterprise under Wuxue City. Its plant area covers 2,000 mu, featuring six key shipbuilding workshops including a 42,000-square-meter intelligent assembly line steel plate cutting and processing workshop, a 52,000-square-meter block manufacturing workshop, and a 20,000-square-meter blasting and painting workshop, as well as 10 horizontal berths and 3,200 meters of dock resources. After full operation, it will have an annual production capacity of 1 million deadweight tons and over 80 10,000-ton-class ships, and its international appeal is rapidly being released. In the past month, the plant area has successively welcomed foreign shipowners from the UAE, the Netherlands, France, Norway, and many domestic shipowners for on-site inspections. Currently, the amount of intended orders is close to 10 billion yuan, and the amount of orders on hand is about 1 billion yuan.
Zha Jun, Secretary of the Wuxue Municipal Party Committee, stated that Wuxue will leverage its unique resource endowments, seize the major strategic opportunity for the transformation and upgrading of the inland river ship industry, focus on the goal of “100-million-ton port, 10-billion-yuan park, 100-billion-yuan industry,” anchor the strategic emerging industry track of intelligent new energy ships to continue efforts, accelerate the construction of a full industry chain ecology from R&D and design to production and manufacturing, speed up the cultivation of new quality productive forces, and strive to build the Hubei Province Intelligent New Energy Ship Industrial Park into a powerful engine driving Wuxue’s high-quality development, contributing Wuxue’s strength to the transformation and upgrading of the province’s inland river ship industry and serving the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.
