On November 21, the “Jinhang No. 1,” a 2,000-deadweight-ton bulk carrier designed and built by Xinneng Shipbuilding, a subsidiary of Jining Energy Group, for Zijin Mining Group, was successfully launched on Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania, opening a new route for bulk cargo transportation in inland regions of Africa.
At the end of 2024, Xinneng Shipbuilding signed a shipbuilding cooperation agreement with Zijin Mining Group to design and build four 2,000-deadweight-ton bulk carriers for cargo transportation within Tanzania. This is Xinneng Shipbuilding’s first overseas inland river shipbuilding project, with a total value exceeding ten million US dollars.
Facing the challenges of insufficient inland transportation infrastructure in Africa, Xinneng Shipbuilding quickly formed a dedicated team and proposed an innovative “modular construction + off-site assembly” solution: ship sections were prefabricated at the factory in Shandong, shipped to Tanzania via a mix of bulk and container shipping methods, and finally assembled locally.
During the design phase, Xinneng Shipbuilding considered transportation limitations, submitted the drawings to China Classification Society (CCS) for pre-review, and invited the client to inspect the automated production line on-site. After three rounds of technical consultations, Zijin Mining Group ultimately approved this plan. To ensure the long-term stable operation of the vessels, Xinneng Shipbuilding also established an overseas office in Tanzania, built a local service network, and dispatched a technical team for long-term support.
The “Jinhang No. 1” has an overall length of 70.08 meters, a beam of 15 meters, a depth of 4.5 meters, a designed draft of 3.5 meters, and a range of 1,000 nautical miles. The successful launch of this vessel, completed 9 days ahead of the contractual schedule, not only demonstrates China’s speed but also provides a replicable model for solving the challenges of large vessel transportation in inland regions.
Guided by the national “Dual Carbon” strategy, Jining Energy Group, leveraging the advantages of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal “golden waterway” and the complete inland shipping industry chain, is seizing the new opportunity of inland vessel fleet renewal. Through cooperation with Wuhan University of Technology and CATL, it has built and put into operation the nation’s first Xinneng Shipbuilding Inland New Energy Vessel Demonstration Base, which integrates R&D design and intelligent manufacturing, pioneering new pathways for the “Gasification of the Canal” and “Electrification of the Canal.” Currently, the company possesses the capability for large-scale, batch construction of 2,000 to 5,000-ton-class inland new energy vessels, holds orders for 185 vessels of various types, and has successfully delivered 61 vessels.
