Hudong Zhonghua New Plant
Hudong Zhonghua - Changxing Shipbuilding Base

The Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding company will eventually move entirely to the new Changxing Shipbuilding Base shipyard next to Jiangnan Shipyard. Changxing Island is an alluvial island located at the mouth of the Yangtze River in China. It covers an area of 88 square kilometers and has a local population of about 36,000. With the gradual completion of the second phase of the Changxing base in 2023, the Hudong Zhonghua Pudong plant and the Hudong Heavy Machinery Pudong plant are planned to be relocated in the first half of 2023.

Shanghai Changxing Island Shipbuilding Base is the largest shipbuilding base in the People's Republic of China, with a planned annual shipbuilding capacity of 12 million tons. China Shipbuilding Corporation has built the Changxing Shipbuilding Base since 2005. Three shipbuilding production lines were built in the Changxing Shipbuilding Base during the first period. They are Shanghai Jiangnan Changxing Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (mainly engaged in civilian ships), Shanghai Jiangnan Changxing Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. (mainly engaged in civilian ships), and Jiangnan Shipbuilding (Group) Co., Ltd. (civilian and military ships), as well as a ship supporting enterprises in the boat Jiangnan Heavy Industry Co., Ltd . In addition, there are also China Shipping Changxing Shipbuilding Base and Zhenhua Heavy Industry Changxing Base on Changxing Island.

As early as 2005, the first phase of the Changxing Shipbuilding Base began construction. Beginning in 2008, Shanghai’s shipbuilding industry "from the Pujiang River to the East China Sea." Jiangnan Shipbuilding Group took the lead in bidding farewell to the Huangpu River, which has been with it for more than 140 years, and moved into the Changxing base as a whole. In the past more than ten years, "Jiangnan Changxing" has become the most exciting term in China's shipbuilding industry. The deserted beach on Changxing Island has become my country's largest shipbuilding base with the most advanced facilities and the most international competitiveness. The 80-square-kilometer Changxing Island has 59 kilometers of deep-water shoreline that does not silt, accumulate, or freeze for many years. When it is combined with China’s ever-changing ship and offshore industry, the development potential of this "shipbuilding treasure" is constantly released.

Domestically-made amphibious assault ships are being produced by Hudong, and from the perspective of the speed of construction, three new types of ships a year are built here. The whole area will be relocated to Changxing Shipbuilding Base and living next to Jiangnan Shipyard, which will realize the integration and exchange of technology. At the same time, the newly planned new shipyard and construction infrastructure of Changxing Island will also prepare for Hudong. The new site is expected to allow China to build a range of warships - including amphibious assault ships, amphibious landing ships and frigates - faster, better and more efficiently.

Chen Jun, general manager of Hudong Zhonghua, said in an interview with the media that the original old factory area was in the Huangpu River, and the width of the water surface had certain restrictions on the construction of large ships. After the new factory is moved to the Yangtze River estuary, it will bring benefits to the construction of larger ships in the future. "This is a shipyard with a high degree of automation. The old factory area has more than 10,000 employees. The new factory area will only retain two-fifths of the employees. The efficiency has increased by 2 to 3 times, but the production capacity has not decreased but increased." Chen Jun said, "This is also an opportunity for the company to transform and upgrade. Through the improvement of informatization, intelligence, and automation, the project will help the overall improvement of the entire shipbuilding industry. The new plant will become one of the most advanced monohull shipyards in the world, leading the Chinese shipbuilding industry to take a step toward modern shipbuilding".

The first stage of the Hudong Zhonghua Changxing shipyard construction, which covers an area of about 2.15 square kilometers out of the 4.32 square kilometers in the entire construction plan, is expected to be completed by the end of 2023. This includes a research and development building, a joint hull workshop, a curved section assembly workshop, a module center for outfitting, a painting workshop, an indoor dockyard, an outdoor dockyard, a dock basin and a dock for outfitting, enabling the production of six specialized ships a year.

On January 4, 2021, the groundbreaking ceremony for the second phase of the China Shipbuilding Changxing Shipbuilding Base, which was listed as a major construction project by the National Development and Reform Commission, was held on Changxing Island, Shanghai. This is another landmark project that promotes the high-quality development of China’s shipbuilding and offshore industry. It marked the full start of the overall relocation project of Hudong Zhonghua under China Shipbuilding Corporation.

Following the construction principle of "overall planning and step-by-step implementation", the second phase of the project is located along the south bank of Changxing Island, with a total construction area of 431.8 hectares and a total investment of 18 billion yuan.

The entire second phase of the project is implemented in two phases. The first phase is planned to invest 8 billion yuan. The construction projects mainly include R&D and design building, hull joint workshop, curved surface segment assembly and welding workshop, outfitting module center, painting workshop, 1 # Indoor Dock, 2# Open-air Dock, Harbor Basin, Outfitting Wharf, etc., with a planned construction area of 460,000 square meters, forming an annual production capacity of 6 special ships, and it is planned to be completed by the end of 2023.

On 22 December 2021, the groundbreaking ceremony of the second phase of China Shipbuilding Changxing Shipbuilding Base's port basin project was held on Changxing Island, Shanghai. Guo Chunju, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Mayor of Changxing Town, Shi Jun, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Li Jianjun, Deputy Director of Chongming Maritime Safety Administration, Mao Lili, Deputy Director of Planning Division of Changxing Management Committee, Zhao Yuxiang of Changxing Environmental Protection Bureau, Cai Yongsheng, Director of Changxing Haitang Institute, Hudong Zhonghua General Manager Chen Jun, Infrastructure Director Zhu Yimin, Assistant General Manager Wu Jifeng, Deputy Chief Constructor Lu Fangdong, Deputy General Manager Chen Tianhua of China Shipbuilding Ninth Design & Research Institute Engineering Co., Ltd., and General Manager Li Wei, Zhen Zhou Lin, general manager of the Southern Supervision Company, and other leaders attended the meeting. The general manager of the company, Chen Jun, announced the start of construction.

The leaders of all units put together, the scene of colored smoke and the whistle rang, and the pile machine officially laid the first pile. The harbor basin project is a key construction project of the second phase of the China Shipbuilding Changxing Shipbuilding Base, and is a landmark project that promotes the high-quality development of China's shipbuilding and offshore industry. The start of construction of the project signifies that the second phase of Changxing Project has entered a new stage of high-quality construction. It is to further promote the strategic cooperation between China State Shipbuilding Corporation and the Shanghai Municipal Government, promote the optimization of the layout and transformation of the Shanghai shipping companies, and implement the implementation of a maritime power and a science and technology power. An important embodiment of strategy.

The second phase of the China Shipbuilding Changxing Shipbuilding Base was invested and constructed by Hudong Zhonghua. It is a major project in Shanghai. Since its official launch in January 2021, it followed the planning and design principles of "advanced technology and reasonable process" and "overall planning, step-by-step implementation" "Construction principles and orderly progress of project construction: the dock project officially started in September, and 40% of the high-pressure jet-grouting piles have been completed; the steel column hoisting of the cutting and processing workshop of the hull joint workshop has been completed; more than 8,000 square meters of concrete pavement pouring has been completed, and the pile foundation of the Jiehe Bridge Basically completed.

With the help and guidance of Changxing Town, Chongming Maritime Safety Administration, Changxing Management Committee, Changxing Environmental Protection Bureau, Changxing Seawall and other higher-level departments, all parties involved in the construction will work together and make every effort to ensure the safety and control of the construction process of the port basin project. The quality is reliable, and the completion and acceptance of the harbor basin will be realized on schedule, laying a solid foundation for the high-quality development of Hudong Zhonghua, and setting a new benchmark for the modernization of China's shipbuilding industry.

After it becomes the new home of Hudong, there will be a huge breakthrough in construction capacity. There are now 3 amphibious assault ships a year, and it is entirely possible that it will double to 6 in the next year. Therefore, the moment of "dumping dumplings" on domestic warships is not suspended, but is gaining momentum. In the future, there will be more advanced models of domestic surface ships waiting to be produced. Various types of ships such as 052E, 054B and 055B will only be much more.

Hudong Zhonghua stated that the second phase of the Changxing Shipbuilding Base carries the future of Hudong Zhonghua’s development. It will use this as an opportunity to build a fusion of intelligent design, automated manufacturing, and big data management. The Internet of Things is running, forming a complete intelligent workshop system covering intelligent units, intelligent production lines, and perception systems, achieving intelligent production process management and control in all directions, and building a world-leading intelligentization with streamlined personnel, efficient processes, energy saving and environmental protection, and excellent quality. , Digital shipbuilding enterprises, to achieve a leap-forward improvement in the core capabilities of shipbuilding, better fulfill the mission of China Shipbuilding Corporation to "lead industry development, support national defense construction, and serve the national strategy", and become the technological innovation and transformation of China's shipbuilding industry during the 14th Five-Year Plan New energy levels and new highlights for development.

The project will follow the planning and design principles of "advanced technology and reasonable process", organize production in accordance with the modern assembly shipbuilding model, aim at the world's advanced lean shipbuilding model, start with process optimization, and comprehensively use precision management, information integration, green manufacturing, intelligent manufacturing and other advanced technologies. Production concept, establish a scientific and efficient production management system, realize the rationalization of ship segmentation and total segment division, production flow and automation, management of pallets, "shell outfitting" integration, and large-scale loading of the dock in the operation. Form the advantage of shipbuilding in final assembly, effectively guarantee product quality, improve operation safety, and form dislocation competition with the existing large-scale ship assembly bases in China to guide the transformation and development of the domestic shipbuilding industry.

The construction of the second phase of the Changxing Shipbuilding Base will further promote the transformation of the Shanghai Changxing Island Marine Equipment Base from manufacturing to intelligent manufacturing, promote intelligent production lines and green shipbuilding technology, and create world-leading assembly integration, system modules, and core supporting facilities. An all-factor industrial base integrating, production and service, etc., has far-reaching influence and great significance.

What is surprising is the large indoor docks, which are relatively rare in China. Generally, large open-air dry docks are built, which are built indoors in sections, and then the sections are transported to the dry dock for assembly. In the Western standard, generally, starting from the cutting of steel plates, all can be carried out in the indoor dock.

It is obviously a common sense in line with Western advanced technology. With a large indoor dock, large ships can be independently built directly to the final launch. This solves the problem of the allocation of dry docks between different ships, and further enhances the shipbuilding capabilities. To put it bluntly, it is ready for future "dumplings". Of course, the volume and area of the indoor dock is larger than those of the French shipyard, so it is not ruled out that large ships of tens of thousands of tons can be built inside the building, which is roughly 1,000 feet long and 250 feet wide. The new indoor dock could accomodate four frigate size ships [two side by side, and two end to end] in various stages of completion.

Of course, the indoor dock has another great advantage, that is, it is impossible to take pictures of the ship's construction outside or in the air, and it is almost impossible to know the construction progress during the construction process, and it has a certain degree of confidentiality. After all, ships, especially large ships, are highly confidential equipment, but due to the constraints of construction conditions, they cannot be completely confidential. The overall appearance and situation are almost transparent. It's clear that this has been the case since the Cold War. The indoor dock can avoid this problem to a certain extent.

The Lorient shipyard of the French Naval Group is one of the largest in Europe [roughly 800 by 150 feet], which has built Aquitaine-class frigates. The ship is actually the French version of the European multifunctional 450-foot frigate FREMM, with a displacement of more than 6,000 tons.