10 ships! Another Chinese 'new shipyard' has started its first order.

Russia's largest grain trader, RIF, has taken a significant step in expanding its maritime logistics by ordering up to 10 general cargo ships from a new Chinese shipyard located in Taizhou.

Recently, RIF Trading LLC and Zhejiang Yongxin Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. held a launching ceremony for 2+4+4 5300-deadweight-ton general cargo ships, marking the start of building a new fleet. This event not only symbolizes RIF's significant investment in shipping and trading but also demonstrates its commitment to improving service quality and operational efficiency.

The launching ceremony brought together senior leaders from RIF and Zhejiang Yongxin Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., as well as key stakeholders in the maritime industry. A symbolic steel-cutting ceremony initiated the construction, and representatives gave speeches emphasizing the project's importance for regional economic development and enhancing the global maritime industry's standing.

This series of 5300DWT general cargo ships are designed to meet the latest maritime efficiency and environmental standards, equipped with advanced navigation and safety systems. These vessels will be fitted with Cummins generator sets that meet IMO Tier III emission standards and have been certified by the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS). This series of ships will play a key role in strengthening RIF Trading LLC's logistics network on its main trade routes.

It is understood that RIF Trading LLC (Trading House RIF), established in 2010, is one of the fastest-growing and largest agricultural enterprises in Russia. Its main business is the procurement and export of agricultural products, also involving agricultural production and logistics. Main products include wheat, barley, corn, peas, flaxseed, and oilseeds such as sunflower seeds.

According to the official website, RIF owns a port on the coast of the Sea of Azov in Rostov Oblast, Russia, with a simultaneous storage capacity of 108,000 tons, an annual throughput of 3.5 million tons, and a land area of 30 hectares. The company's fleet operates 17 self-owned river-sea cargo ships for cargo transportation, as well as regularly chartered bulk carriers.

Previously, Russian media reported that RIF signed new construction contracts in October 2023 for a series of river-sea cargo ships.

It is understood that RIF's order is also Yongxin Shipbuilding's first new ship order. According to the official website, Yongxin Shipbuilding was established on December 6, 2022. The legal representative is Yan Deli, with a registered capital of 50 million RMB. The company is located in Puba Port, a coastal industrial city in Sanmen County on the east coast of Zhejiang Province, backed by Ningbo. It is an eastern China coastal water transportation hub and a natural sheltered harbor.

Yongxin Shipbuilding's factory is divided into production and living areas. The production area covers 482 mu (approximately 32 hectares), and the living area covers 120 mu (approximately 8 hectares). It has a 940-meter shoreline. The planned total investment for the factory is 650 million RMB. The plan includes one 100,000-ton slipway, three 50,000-ton slipways, and one outfitting dock. Currently, three 350×36-meter slipways with a lifting capacity of 200 tons have been completed, along with one 100,000-ton slipway equipped with a 350-ton crane. There is a 13,000-square-meter CNC cutting workshop, a 5,000-square-meter painting workshop, a 4,000-square-meter electrical and pipe processing workshop, and 5,000 square meters of warehouses, offices, residential buildings, and other facilities, enabling an annual production capacity of 300,000 tons.

Yongxin Shipbuilding has a strong management team with high business acumen and comprehensive technical capabilities. The main members have more than ten years of experience in shipbuilding and ship operation. The team includes chief engineers and captains from state-owned shipping companies that transitioned to the shipping market in 1996, and shipyard executives, workshop directors, and senior engineers who entered the shipbuilding industry when the Chinese shipping market began to boom in 1998. The entire team consists of approximately 70 people. The team has built six 378TEU container ships with a deadweight of 6300 tons, approved by CCS in Taizhou, Zhejiang. Their main ship types include 378TEU container ships, 713TEU container ships, and 22500DWT bulk carriers, mainly exported to Malaysia, Turkey, and other countries.

Since 2013, the team has entered the oil and chemical tanker market. In recent years, the ships built and delivered include the 22900-ton product oil/chemical tanker "Yun Ding 19," the 3440-ton stainless steel chemical tanker "Hengzhou 007," the 16000-ton bulk carrier "Gao Xintongda," more than ten typical vessels including 6500-ton/7000-ton stainless steel chemical tankers, and two 4000M3 marine engineering (dredging) special vessels.

To meet customer and market demands, this team established Zhejiang Yongxin Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., leveraging years of accumulated capital to build a shipyard that conforms to modern shipbuilding models, using modern and advanced management models and efficient and high-quality production technologies to deliver high-quality vessels that satisfy ship owners.