World's First in Global Orders: Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Delivers 8 Ships of 7000TEU Containers within Three Months
On September 22nd, China Shipbuilding Group's subsidiary, Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., in conjunction with China Shipbuilding Industry Trade Co., Ltd., named and delivered the 7000TEU container ship "X-PRESS CENTAURUS" (H1556) built for X-PRESS Company from Singapore. With this delivery, Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding has completed a total of 8 7000TEU container ships in just 3 months since the first delivery of this ship type on June 21st of this year. Following the Cape Hope bulk carrier and the Aphara oil tanker, this is another brand ship type built in large quantities by Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding in the segmented market, fully demonstrating the company's profound heritage and strong capabilities.
This ship type is a new generation of green, energy-saving, and environmentally-friendly container ships developed by Shanghai Shipbuilding Research and Design Institute under China Shipbuilding Group. It has a total length of 272 meters, a beam of 42.8 meters, a depth of 24.6 meters, a loaded draft of 15 meters, and a carrying capacity of approximately 86,000 tons. It can load 9 layers and 17 rows of containers on the deck and 8 layers and 15 rows of containers in the cargo hold, with a total capacity of over 7,000 standard 20-foot containers. In addition, the ship can accommodate 800 reefer container plugs, and the container layout on the deck adopts a mixed-type design, which can increase the weight of container stacking on the hatch cover and deck.
This ship type adopts a low-resistance line design, coupled with efficient propellers and fully suspended twisted rudders and rudder bulbs, greatly optimizing its speed, significantly reducing fuel consumption, and reducing carbon emissions. It is worth mentioning that through overall layout and structural design optimization, the ship achieves lightweight design, effectively reducing the deadweight, and significantly improving the loading capacity. In terms of vibration and noise control, it also adopts technical means such as whole ship vibration and noise analysis, overall layout, source control, and terminal absorption, achieving excellent levels of vibration and noise control, with test values significantly lower than the limits specified in regulations and rules.
As an innovative leader in the field of Chinese civilian shipbuilding, Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding is the world's first shipbuilding company to develop, design, and build more than 300 Cape Hope bulk carriers, accounting for about 16% of the global Cape Hope bulk carrier market, and ranking first in the world. The Aphara oil tanker developed, designed, and built by the company has delivered a total of 50 ships, accounting for about 5% of the global Aphara oil tanker fleet. Especially in 2023, it has received orders for 13 ships of this ship type, accounting for about 50% of the global market share.
In 2020, in order to further enrich and strengthen its civilian ship spectrum and enhance its comprehensive strength, Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding decided to enter the segmented market of 7000TEU container ships after a comprehensive analysis of the shipbuilding market. So far, it has received orders for a total of 34 ships of this type, ranking first in the global market share.
In order to create the brand ship type of the 7000TEU container ship meticulously, Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding guided by the ideas of "fast, efficient, low-cost, and high-quality," conducted comprehensive construction planning and technical breakthroughs with remarkable results.
It established a construction planning network for 7000TEU container ships, focusing on construction difficulties, and set up five special groups: "Three Cancellations," "Half-Ship Axle Shaft Installation," "Precision Management and Simulated Box Trials," "The Construction of Dual First-Class" and "Efficient Fuel Injection" to carry out technical breakthroughs. At the same time, from six aspects including design, construction methods, precision, production management, project management, and pre-production and subsequent production, a total of 63 core guidance documents were formulated to build a standardized construction process for 7000TEU container ships.
Currently, Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding has normalized processes such as total section boring, half-ship axle shaft installation, and 100% trial container before launching. At the same time, it is comprehensively promoting the "Three Cancellations" work (canceling overall painting and polishing of the engine room, ballast tanks, and cargo holds), achieving about 90% completeness before launching, and achieving the goal of zero opinions in segment, launching, sea trials, and delivery, forming Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding's unique fast, continuous, and rhythmic production and batch delivery model, achieving the "China Shipbuilding Speed" of delivering 8 ships in 3 months, injecting new momentum into the comprehensive promotion of the "cruise-led, one-body-two-wing" strategy, and further enhancing the high-quality transformation of civilian ships.
It is understood that by the end of this year, Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding will also deliver 4 7000TEU container ships, totaling 12 ships for the whole year, with the prospect of creating a new record of delivering one ship on average per month.
