China’s Hengli Group mulls $1.3-billion shipbuilding investment

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–China’s Hengli Group is planning to invest yuan (CNY) 9.2 billion ($1.3 billion) into its shipbuilding business at Dalian in Liaoning province, the company said on Monday.

Its subsidiary Hengli Heavy Industry will build a shipbuilding capacity of 1.8 million deadweight tonnes (DWT) each year and 1.8 million tonnes/year of steel processing capacity at Changxin Island in Dalian City in northeastern China, the company posted on its account on WeChat, a Chinese social media platform.

An agreement was signed on 7 July between Hengli Group and the local governments of Dalian City and Changxin Island on the investment.

The investment will expand the Group’s building capacity of ultra-large carriers of crude and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), container vessels, offshore floating storage and drilling facilities.

Separately, Hengli Heavy Industry on 3 July inked a deal to build six 325,000 DWT ore tankers for Singapore’s shipping firm Winning International Group.

The shipping company in September 2023 had ordered two WinningMax carriers from Hengli.

Hengli Group entered the shipyard business in 2022 through the acquisition of STX (Dalian), the Chinese unit of South Korea’s STX Group.

Hengli Group is parent of Hengli Petrochemical.

($1 = CNY7.27)