First ship from Changxing shipyard

Chinese shipbuilder Jiangnan Shipyard Group, recently delivered a 16,600 dwt chemical tanker, the Sten Arnold, completed at its Shanghai Changxing Shipbuilding facility, to its Norwegian owner, Rederiet Stenersen. The Bergen-based shipowner ordered 13 ?Idun-class? vessels from Jiangnan and the Sten Arnold is the ninth in the series and the first newbuilding completed at Shanghai Changxing Shipbuilding, a yard with pretensions to become the world’s largest. Shanghai Changxing SB is a mega shipyard currently under construction on Changxing Island at the Yangtze River mouth as the relocation site for Jiangnan Shipyard. The old Jiangnan yard had to be evacuated because the site is needed for the Shanghai World Expo to be held in 2010.

At Changxing, the shipbuilding complex will comprise three separate facilities to be operated by, respectively, Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding, Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding and Jiangnan Shipyard all under the state umbrella ownership of CSSC. The Changxing base has so far bagged orders for VLCCs, capesize bulk carriers and large containerships. Hong Kong investor Citic Pacific earlier this month ordered a number of bulk carriers at the yard. Phase two of the construction programme started this month.