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Chongqing Chuandong / Fuling Shipyard

Chuandong Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd. is affiliated to China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, also known as Chuandong Shipbuilding Factory. It was founded in November 1966 and basically completed and put into operation in October 1976. Western intelligence estimated it was probably complete by December 1977. Fuling Shipyard is on the Yangtze River, approximately 2,300 kilometers (800 nautical miles) southwest of Shanghai.

Chuan Dong Shipyard, which is subordinated to the China shipbuilding industry corporation, located in Fuling district of Chongqing city. Leaning against Chongqing Fuling express highway, facing the gold water course of Yangtze River, with Yuhuai Railway in the south. It covers an area of 1.86 million square meters. The shipyard is the largest ship building, repairing and steel structure manufacturing enterprise in the southwest of China which can independently design and manufacture all kinds of river and sea going ships with capacities of under 8000 tons. Annual production capacity of steel structures reaches up to 30000 tons. The shipyard has successively got the welding certificates of ABS, GL, LR. The shipyard has passed ISO9002 quality system certification in 1998 and ISO 9000:2000 system plus News Era Quality certification of 2001 National military standard in December of 2002.

The original state-run Chuandong Shipyard, located in Shuanghe Street, Lidu Town, Fuling District, Chongqing City, began production after 10 years of construction, and produced a total of 3 Type 033 submarines in 9 years. Only three ships were produced by the Red Star Factory. Later, the plant's military was converted to civilians, and submarine production became history.

"State-owned Red Star Metal Structure Factory" (referred to as "Red Star Factory") was founded in November 1966, code-named 432 Factory, and was built by the PLA's 8342 unit, which belongs to the Sixth Machines Department. The Red Star Factory is located in Jigongzui, Lidu Town, Fuling District, facing the Yangtze River Channel, covering an area of 1.86 million square meters. It mainly produced submarines.

Diesel attack submarine construction started at Fuling in mid-1978, when pieces of submarine outer hull plate were present. By 1979, pieces of outer hull plate for two submarines were present in an open storage area. Western monitoring of submarine construction was difficult becauseof the covered main construction hall. Submarine pressure hull sections were assembled in subassembly buildings and moved by transverser to the main construction hall for final assembly. Only by monitoring the number of components in the open storage area and correlating this with the movement of the transverser carriages can the level of submarine construction activity be gauged.

Analysis of imagery from June 1979 through May 1980 indicated that two submarines were under construction at Fuling Shipyard China. Supporting evidence included the presence of an outfitting barge at the shipyard; identification of two sets of assembly support frames near the construction hall; and a decrease in the number of outer-hull components seen in the open storage area.

An outfitting barge was positioned downstream from the marine railway. This barge was similar to the barge used at Wuhan Shipyard Wujiangto outfit ROMEO and MING submarines. The presence of the barge at Fuling suggested that at least one submarine may be nearly complete and may be launched within a few months. Fifty assembly support frames were identified at the shipyard. The supportframes were observed in two groups on the east side of the construction hall. Submarine construction at Fuling probably began when the frames were moved into the hall. On the basis of Chinese construction techniques using assembly support frames, an estimated 20 to 26 frames would be used in the construction of a ROMEO. Thus, the presence of 50 such frames suggested two submarines were being built at the shipyard.

Outer-hull components for ROMEO submarines were observed at Fuling as earlyBy June 1979, outer-hull components for two submarines were in the open storage area. The two sets of components remained there through January 1980. However, components for only one submarine were visible in the area, indicating that the first ROMEO was in the late stage of construction. The second ROMEO was probably in the late stage of construction by mid-May, least seven pieces of the remaining hull plates were removed from the open storage area.

By the early 1980s the production level at this shipyard was one Romeo SS per year. Two Romeos had been launched from Fuling, the first in 1980 and the second in 1981. A probable pressure hull section was identified in a subassembly building in early 1982, an indication that work on a third Romeo was underway. In addition, the transporter dock used to carry submarines downstream to Shanghai had returned to the shipyard by early July 1982. The return of the transporter dock was the first indication of an upcoming submarine launch from Fuling.

In January 1980, the Red Star Plant was renamed as "State-owned Chuandong Shipyard" and later became a subsidiary of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation. In the early 1980s, the Chuandong shipyard after the military-to-civilian production began to produce civilian ships. By 1985, a total of 102 civilian ships had been produced. Chongqing Red Star Factory, built in 10 years, delivered 3 "killers" to the Navy, the production of submarines became history. In 2004, Chuandong Shipyard independently researched and developed stainless steel chemical tankers, and produced the first 3000-ton stainless steel chemical tanker "Ninghua 417" designed by China with completely independent intellectual property rights, filling a domestic gap.

Chongqing is focused on the promotion of standard shipbuilding, and promote the development of the shipbuilding industry toward "integration", and the development of shipbuilding from overall manufacturing to segmented construction. According to the "Chongqing Shipbuilding Industry Development Opinions", Chongqing will focus on the Chuandong Shipyard, Dongfeng Shipyard, Shenxi Shipbuilding Company and other enterprises as the backbone to take advantage of the design and manufacturing of special ships and professional ships to develop LPG ships below 10,000 tons. Cargo ships and special vessels such as chemical tankers, finished oil tankers, ro-ro ships, engineering ships, etc., and expand the export volume of ships.

Oriental Star, a cruise ship on its way to Chongqing from Nanjingwith 454 people on board, capsized on the Yangtze River in Jianli County, Hubei Province, China, leaving 442 fatalities - the worst shipwreck incident on inland river since 1949. This disaster happened when the ship encountered a severe thunderstorm. Damaged trees were observed on bothsides of the Yangtze River immediately across the ship-wreck location. Oriental Star was likely hit by microburst straight-line wind and/or embedded small vortices with a wind speed of 49–60 m/sec.

According to media reports, the "Oriental Star" was designed by Chongqing Dongfeng Shipbuilding Company (hereinafter referred to as Dongfeng Shipyard) and constructed by Chongqing Fuling Chuandong Shipyard. Some insiders of Dongfang Steamship Company said that the main structure of the ship was built by Dongfeng Shipyard. The Chongqing Fuling Chuandong Shipyard denied building the "Oriental Star" and only admitted that in 1992, the main structure of two other 600-passenger passenger ships had been built for the Oriental Steamship Company. In addition, the relevant person in charge of Chongqing Dongfeng Shipyard said that time has passed a long time ago, and it is impossible to recall whether he had designed or built the "Oriental Star". However, on 05 June 2015, Jiang Yan, the head of the Oriental Steamship Company, stated that the "Oriental Star" was built by their own shipyard.

On 03 June 2015, Zhang Lihua, the person in charge of the Propaganda Department of Chongqing Chuandong Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd. (formerly Chuandong Shipyard) confirmed that the company did build the hull structure of two 600-passenger ordinary passenger ships for Dongfang Steamship Company in 1993. Dongfang Steamship did build the main structure of the ship at Chuandong Shipyard, but it was not marked at the time. "Eastern Star" ship. The "Star of the Orient" that is in trouble today has undergone a great change from the main structure they built, which is almost beyond recognition. Dongfang Steamship Company obviously did not meet the relevant production qualifications for the construction of "Oriental Star" similar cruise ship.