“Super Factory” put into production! Wuchang Shipbuilding, a century-old enterprise, ushers in a new chapter of “from river to sea”

After 14 months of careful preparation and construction, the Weihai base project of Wuhu Shipyard, with a total investment of 2 billion yuan, has officially put into production. This inland river shipyard with a century of glorious history has embarked on a new journey of "from river to sea" in Weihai.

The world's first "dark factory" in the shipbuilding industry! Wuhu Shipyard's "super factory" put into production

On May 30, Wuhu Shipyard held the commissioning ceremony and ESG strategy release conference of Weihai Wu Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. The first coastal, green, intelligent, and sustainable marine equipment base—the Wu Ship (Weihai) Green Marine Engineering Technology Industrial Base project—officially put into production. This is the first shipbuilding base built by the century-old Wu Ship implementing its outward borrowing strategy, aiming to be the first "super factory" and "dark factory" in the shipbuilding industry.

Relevant leaders including Zha Hanbin, deputy inspector of the Anhui Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology; Jin Zhengpei, first-level section chief of the Shipbuilding Division of the Anhui Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology; Xin Ying, Shandong Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology Marine Equipment Industry Division; and Liu Bin, first-level section chief of the Shandong Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology Marine Equipment Industry Division attended the ceremony; Yu Ning, member of the Standing Committee of the Weihai Municipal Committee and secretary of the Political and Legal Committee; Wang Qing, secretary of the Party Working Committee and director of the Management Committee of Weihai Economic Development Zone; and Li Zhengjian, chief expert of the China Shipbuilding Engineering Society, delivered speeches.

At the ceremony, Yu Ning, Xu Hui, Zha Hanbin, Xin Ying, Cai Junfeng, Wang Qing, Jin Peng, Li Zhengjian, Xia Guihua, Wu Yunfei, Zhang Zhao, and Li Jijun jointly pressed the start button at the venue, opening a new chapter in the operation of the century-old Wu Ship building large ships by the sea.

Wuhu Shipyard, in accordance with the "1+2+N" strategic plan, has set a development goal of hundreds of billions of yuan, planning to borrow the sea and land, and joining hands with the Weihai Economic Development Zone to build Weihai Wu Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the Weihai base). The Weihai base mainly engages in shipbuilding, design, repair, and the development of marine engineering equipment and offshore wind power equipment. It covers an area of 460,000 square meters, has one 100,000-ton dock and two 50,000-ton slipways, mainly building 3,000-9,000 car automobile carriers and 50,000-ton deadweight MR-type refined oil tankers and other high value-added ship types. The total planned capacity is 800,000 deadweight tons, with an annual output value of 5 billion.

The Weihai base has eight fully automated production lines, an industry-leading intelligent cutting and blanking workshop, and an intelligent component assembly and welding workshop. It is equipped with five domestic first-application technologies: comprehensive printing and coding technology, eight-robot multi-gun longitudinal welding technology, single gantry eight-robot T-array welding technology, automatic material feeding and sorting production line, and AGV automatic transportation robot, coupled with the most advanced dynamic vision technology and thin plate laser composite welding technology, which can achieve high-degree human-machine collaboration, saving about 40% of labor overall. The intelligent central control system automatically allocates factory resources, and the automation rate of the workshop can reach 80%. Integrating advanced technology and intelligent management, combined with physical safety protection measures, safety and efficiency are improved, making it a "super factory" in the shipbuilding industry.

During the visit, Zhang Zhao, chairman of Wuhu Shipyard, introduced to Secretary Yu Ning and other leaders the achievements of Wuhu Shipyard in intelligent manufacturing, product ecology, and the development of the Weihai base. The leaders spoke highly of the Weihai base's planning vision of building a green, intelligent, and sustainable marine equipment industrial cluster. Li Zhengjian, chief expert of the China Shipbuilding Engineering Society, said in his speech: "My judgment is that the world's first 'dark factory' in the shipbuilding industry may be born here first!" The completion of the Weihai Wu Ship "super factory" is not only a leap for Wuhu Shipyard, but also an important step for China to move from a shipbuilding power to a strong shipbuilding country.

Orders are scheduled until 2028! Wuhu Shipyard revitalizes Sanjin Shipbuilding to build a new base

Wuhu Shipyard has a century of shipbuilding experience and profound technical background, ranking among the first echelon of domestic shipbuilding enterprises. It is currently relying on the group's advantageous resources to accelerate its "from river to sea" layout and actively seize the high-end shipbuilding market, such as automobile export transportation and energy transportation.

In August last year, Wuhu Shipyard and Weihai Economic and Technological Development Zone officially signed the Wu Ship Weihai Green Marine Engineering Technology Industrial Base project. The project has a total investment of about 2 billion yuan and a total land area of about 680 mu. It was selected as a key project for green, low-carbon, and high-quality development in Shandong Province in 2024. The project focuses on the construction of the Wu Ship Weihai green and environmentally friendly high-tech shipbuilding park, mainly producing and manufacturing car carriers and LNG and methanol dual-fuel tankers. After the completion and commissioning of the project, the annual output value is expected to reach 5 billion yuan.

The Wu Ship Weihai base will utilize the 600 mu of land and 30,000 square meters of factory buildings of the former Sanjin Shipbuilding. According to the International Shipbuilding Network, Sanjin Shipbuilding was established in January 2000. It was once the only foreign-funded enterprise in China to obtain a whole-ship manufacturing license and was also the earliest modern shipbuilding leading enterprise in Weihai to introduce advanced shipbuilding technology from South Korea. During its heyday, it had a shipbuilding capacity of 1.2 million deadweight tons and an annual output value of nearly 3 billion yuan. However, affected by the downturn in the shipping market, Sanjin Shipbuilding entered bankruptcy reorganization legal procedures in August 2014.

In 2016, the reorganized new Sanjin Shipbuilding started new shipbuilding business again. After that, Sanjin Shipbuilding delivered a total of 14 new ships, but it did not receive any new ship orders after December 2017. The last new ship—the 11,000-ton oil and chemical tanker "SANJIN 3025"—was delivered in December 2020.

At the commissioning ceremony of the Weihai base, Zhang Zhao, chairman of Wuhu Shipyard, said that in just 121 days, an 87,000-square-meter "super factory" was built and put into production as scheduled. From January 2023, when Wuhu Shipyard and Weihai Economic Development Zone first contacted each other, to March 2024, when the first laser-cut steel plate was successfully produced, it took 14 months, creating an industry benchmark in China for leading project implementation efficiency and intelligent process technology.

Although the Wu Ship Weihai base has just been put into production, the company's orders are currently scheduled until 2028. According to Wuhu Shipyard's plan, the Weihai base will build MR-type refined oil tankers and car carriers. The MR-type ship is a new ship type area opened by Wuhu Shipyard this year. So far, it has received six new ship orders.

At the beginning of this year, Wuhu Shipyard's "old customer" Union Maritime placed an order with Wuhu Shipyard for four 49,000-ton deadweight MR-type refined oil tankers. The new ships will be delivered successively between 2026 and 2027. This is Wuhu Shipyard's first MR-type refined oil tanker order. Before this, Wuhu Shipyard's largest liquid cargo ship order was the six 38,000-ton deadweight refined oil/chemical tankers ordered by Stolt Tankers, a subsidiary of Stolt-Nielsen Group, last year.

Subsequently, in April this year, European shipowner EuroGreen Maritime announced an order for four methanol dual-fuel MR-type refined oil tankers, to be built by Wuhu Shipyard's Weihai base, and are expected to be delivered and put into operation between the first half of 2026 and 2027.

In addition to MR tankers, Wuhu Shipyard also plans to entrust the construction project of 4+6 89,000-ton methanol dual-fuel bulk carriers, which was undertaken from China Ocean Shipping at the beginning of this year, to its Weihai base. This is the largest vessel built by Wuhu Shipyard, and will be constructed by the Weihai base, with the first four vessels scheduled for delivery between 2025 and 2026.

Achieving 50 billion yuan in output value by 2028! Wuhu Shipyard releases ESG strategy

It is understood that Wuhu Shipyard, formerly known as Fuji Heng Machinery Factory, established in 1900, has a 123-year history. In 2007, Chery acquired Wuhu Shipyard and reorganized it into Wuhu Xinlian Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. In 2010, it relocated to the Sanshan new factory area. Currently renamed Wuhu Shipyard Co., Ltd., it is a leading modern shipbuilding enterprise in China.

In recent years, Wuhu Shipyard has shown strong development momentum. Its civilian shipbuilding sector has formed five mature fields: liquid cargo ships, offshore engineering vessels, bulk carriers, special vessels, and multi-purpose vessels. Among them, Wuhu Shipyard's liquid cargo ships have been selected into the list of the world's top ten ships and enjoy high popularity in both domestic and international markets. The company owns Wuhu Shipyard headquarters, Weihai Shipbuilding Base, Anhui Haizhi Equipment Research Institute, Shanghai Haizhi Zhiyuan Technology Co., Ltd., and Wuhu Fuji Heng Machinery Company.

At the Weihai base commissioning ceremony, Wuhu Shipyard released its ESG strategy to the world, aiming to tell the ESG story of "World Wuhu Shipbuilding," and to further advance towards a green, high-end, happy, and responsible Wuhu Shipbuilding.

Wuhu Shipyard actively practices the national dual-carbon strategy, aiming to improve its sustainable development level and enhance its value creation capabilities. It adheres to the pursuit of "technology for good" and "business for good," and is determined to build a sustainable green, high-end, happy, and responsible century-old Wuhu Shipbuilding. Starting from top-level design, it builds a compliant governance system, allowing compliance to create value; in production, it adheres to the development strategy of clean production, green shipbuilding, and building green ships, integrating dual-carbon targets and sustainable development concepts into the entire process of operation and production, focusing on building a new green factory management system, building a national-level green factory, and utilizing big data, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things to develop new ship production forces; adhering to the path of green shipbuilding, it established the Three Points Water New Energy Shipbuilding Company, developing and building a full range of green offshore engineering equipment with pure electric, pure LNG power, and methanol, ammonia, and hydrogen power, playing a leading role in the industry chain, empowering upstream and downstream industries with the green Wuhu Shipbuilding system, and collaborating with the supply chain to create green products; adhering to the principle of "social value is higher than enterprise value," it fully focuses on the aspirations of its 7,000 employees for a better life, and strives to create a sense of happiness and achievement for all employees through the construction of "honor homes," "growth homes," "warm homes," and "safe homes," creating a happy Wuhu Shipbuilding.

With the commissioning of the Wuhu (Weihai) Offshore Engineering Technology Industrial Park, the century-old Wuhu Shipbuilding has officially embarked on a new journey of the "towards the river, towards the sea" strategy. In the future, Wuhu Shipbuilding will use the ESG strategic plan as a blueprint, accurately grasp the general trend of the times, adapt to the development trend of digitalization, networking, and intelligence, move towards a more sustainable future, achieve long-term commercial success and the common growth of social value, drive the close integration of the shipbuilding industry chains in Anhui and Shandong provinces, build an offshore engineering equipment industrial cluster centered on the marine economy and covering talents, resources, capital, and technology, and contribute more to the construction of a strong maritime nation and a strong manufacturing nation.

Chairman Zhang Zhao pointed out that the completion of the Weihai base not only optimizes the production layout of Wuhu Shipyard, but also is an important supporting base for Wuhu Shipyard to further deepen its service for automobile logistics export services. It is a bridgehead for Wuhu Shipyard to move towards the deep sea and an important component of the strategic output value target of 50 billion yuan in 2028.