STX?s China shipyard starts operations

South Korea’s STX Group said a $1 billion shipbuilding complex in China has started operating and will deliver its first complete vessel by the end of this year. The Dalian shipbuilding facility will carry out the whole shipbuilding process from steel cutting and engine assembling to block manufacturing.

The group has already received $3 billion worth of vessel orders, mainly for bulk carriers and pure car and truck carriers. STX, which has the world’s fifth-largest shipbuilder by order backlog, expects to build about 24 ships a year in Dalian from 2009.