Page 79: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (March 1997)

mainland Chinese yards to carry out such work.

During last year, HUD, which is a 50/50 joint venture between the

Swire Group and Hutchinson

Group, sold off its Taikoo floating dock to Xianen Shipyard in main- land China and took delivery of the 40,000-ton lifting United floating dock from Far East Levingston (FELS). This floating dock, with a length capability of 981 ft. (299 m), moved HUD into the large contain- ership market. Although there are no definite plans to increase the facilities at HUD, yard manage- ment is reportedly considering replacing the Whampoa floating dock with a larger unit that would facilitate a move into the very large containership market.

Meanwhile, it is expected that the United floating dock will, at some stage this year, be relocated to the company's Tsing Yi Island headquarters from Lantau Island; land reclaimations and dredging are required for this eventuality.

Government permission is also required for this move.

Yiu Luan Dockyard, part of the giant China Merchants Group, operates a total of three shipyards, the largest in Hong Kong and two smaller facilities in mainland

China. Two years ago, the yard operated a total of five floating docks in the Hong Kong area, only three still remain. These are docks

No. 1 (12,800 tons lifting capacity),

No. 3 (36,000 tons) and No. 5 (1,800 tons). Numbers 3 and 5 are both located at Yam O near Lantau

Island, and No. 4 is at the compa- ny' headquarters on Tsing Yi

Island. The No. 2 floating dock (12,500 tons) was recently moved to Yiu Luan's Shekou Shipyard in the Shenzhen Special Economic

Zone, just to the north of Hong

Kong, and dock No. 4 (8,500 tons) moved to Zhang Zhou Shipyard at

Among City on China's coastline opposite Taiwan. The Zhang Zhou

Shipyard is a joint venture between Yiu Luan and the Long

Jiang Shipyard.

For the future, the company is currently looking on the second- hand market for two additional floating docks, one for Tsing Yi and the other for Shekou. The plan is to improve the Hong Kong facility with a larger dock than No. 3.

Plans exist for the No. 3 floating dock to eventually be moved to

Tsing Yi Island, although permis- sion from the Hong Kong govern-

March, 1997 81 ment would have to be sought for this move.

The two main success stories on the international market from mainland China have been

Gwangzhou, and Nantong Ocean

Ship Engineering Co., located near

Shanghai. There is a question of the technical level of operations in mainland Chinese yards, the main work currently including steel renewal and blasting and coatings operations. However, both of these yards are forming a very good rep- utation for such work, which will inevitably bring further, more com- plicated work to the yard.

In March 1995, the facilities at

Gwangzhou Wenchong were exten- sively increased by the opening of a new 200,000-dwt capacity graving dock. This involved a large invest- ment by China State Shipbuilding

Corp. (CSSC), which actually owns

CN\0

Cameroon Shipyard and Industrial Engineering LTD

Head Office: Zone Amont - Port de Douala - BP 2389 Douala-Cameroun-Central Africa

Tel: (237) 40-15-60: 40-34-88: 40-47-71 • Fax: (237) 40-61-99; Telex: 5479 KN

Main Mission • Shiprepair and Shipbuilding • Onshore and Offshore industrial engineering activities • General engineering • Maintenance and Manufacture of Containers

Our Facilities • 3 floating dry docks with the following lifting 500T; 1000T; 10 000T • A floating crane with a lifting capacity of 120T • An area of 5000 m2 of covered workshops equipped with modern machinery. • Repair berths for afloat work.

Hull clearing with HP water of a Greek tanker

Chantier Naval et Industriel du Cameroun s.a.

Cameroon Shipyard and Industrial Engineering LTD on »G

Circle 334 on Reader Service Card

I itlight 3D Sandwich Panels

Do you know the latest? 4,4.^^4,4 4 < s 4 1 1111•• f,.... :: :: • : - % •••• >;;;" •"' '

FIRE RESTRICTING MATERIAL IMO MSC 40 (64) - 41 (64)

NO OTHER EXISTING PRODUCT CAN MATCH OUR MITLIGHT

WBlBMHiljM ••«&'' st • LIGHTWEIGHT, • HIGH STRENGHT, • FIRE PROOF, • DECORATIVE

PARTITION WALLS, CEILING, LINING, FURNITURE, DOORS, AIR DUCTS, LUGGAGE

COMPARTMENTS, FLOORINGS, ACCORDING TO ANY DESIGNER'S REQUIREMENT. 4.000 m itlight® ON PEGASUS ONE • FINCANTIERI

Circle 280 on Reader Service Card