CSSC Tianjin Adds Two Drydocks With Purchase of Neighboring Yard

CSSC Tianjin, the Bohai Bay division of world-leading shipbuilder CSSC, is expanding significantly with the acquisition of a neighboring yard that went bankrupt in 2021.  

CSSC is planning to buy parts of Tianjin Xingang Shipbuilding Heavy Industry's yard in the Tianjin Lingang free zone area. Tianjin Xingang folded in 2021, and CSSC Tianjin has been leasing part of its space, including six plots of land and 22 buildings. The lease expires in December, and CSSC Tianjin - which has a full orderbook and a need for space - decided to buy the yard outright from owner Hong Kong Shipbuilding Industry Corporation. 

The newly-acquired assets include a 500,000-ton drydock, a 300,000-ton drydock, two gantry cranes, a module plant, a paint plant, and more than a mile of extra wharfage for outfitting and cargo handling. CSSC Tianjin expects that the additional assets will increase its annual shipbuilding capacity by another 2.4 million deadweight tonnes - about five percent of China's already-chart-topping total output. The reported price comes to about $550 million. 

Tianjin Xinjang was one of the earliest tenants in the Tianjin Lingang Industrial Zone, the largest ship repair and shipbuilding complex in the region. It ran into financial difficulties in 2019, and it slid into bankruptcy in the fall and winter of 2021. 

Separately, a different division of CSSC in another province - Wuchang Shipbuilding Heavy Industry in Wuhan - is buying Wuhan Wuchuan Hangrong Heavy Industry Equipment for $134 million. 

Both are related-party transactions, and are intended to "optimize and adjust the capacity layout" and increase production, CSSC said. 

Chinese shipbuilders are scrambling to add capacity amidst a flurry of ordering activity, and many are booked out through 2028.