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China Merchants Group is moving to restore large-scale shipbuilding capacity at Quanzhou Shipyard in Fujian province following a strategic cooperation agreement with the Quanzhou municipal government. The agreement was signed November 2, 2026, announced by China Merchants on November 3, and drew renewed international attention on November 10–11. The shipyard occupies approximately 134 hectares in Hui'an County, has 3.6 kilometers of waterfront and includes two large drydocks designed to accommodate vessels in the 300,000-deadweight-tonne class. China Merchants chairman Miao Jianmin inspected the facilities and called for an orderly resumption of production. Financial terms, final ownership arrangements and a timetable for restarting large-scale newbuilding have not been disclosed.
Two Giant Drydocks.
A Decade-Old Shipbuilding Gap.
A New Revival Plan.
Quanzhou Shipyard / Douwei Port Area
Schematic illustration of the two large drydocks and associated infrastructure. Not a scaled engineering drawing or a current occupancy map.
Quanzhou restarted repair work in September 2023 through local partners. The site has received research ships, offshore vessels, barges and bulk carriers for maintenance and related work.
China Merchants has called for the restoration of shipyard capacity. No verified production date, first newbuilding order, annual CGT target or final controlling stake has been published.
Four turning points in the yard's history
China Is Adding Shipyards.
But Can the Market Absorb Them?
Merchant Ships
China Merchants secured a controlling stake in the former Yangfan yard in 2025 and relaunched it for conventional merchant-vessel construction.
CONTROL REPORTEDChemical Tankers
The former Dongze facility was restructured into China Merchants' Nanjing network, specializing in stainless-steel chemical tankers.
PRODUCTION ACTIVEFeeder Vessels
Shipbuilding restarted in 2026. By July the yard reportedly held contracts for more than 20 ships worth approximately RMB4.7 billion.
NEWBUILDING RESTARTEDLarge Docks
Two 300,000-DWT-class docks and a working repair operation are the foundation of the new strategic cooperation framework.
NEWBUILDING PLAN PENDINGChina's 2028 schedule exceeds demonstrated annual capacity
Danish Ship Finance estimated 45 million CGT scheduled for China in 2028, compared with 32 million CGT of demonstrated annual yard capacity. This is a scheduled-workload comparison, not a forecast that 45 million CGT will actually be delivered.
A reopened yard could add usable production capacity over time, but its annual contribution cannot be determined from drydock dimensions alone. Delays, shifts between yards and further expansion also affect the national balance.
Clarksons' late-October record assessment, valued at approximately $700 billion worldwide. The 68% Chinese share is measured against this orderbook, not against current worldwide yard capacity.
China's reported share of approximately 225 shipyard expansion projects tracked worldwide. A project count does not establish how much new annual CGT output will result.
Can Two Old Drydocks
Become a Profitable New
Shipbuilding Business?
Newbuilding restart assumptions
Simple mode contains eight inputs. Advanced assumptions remain available but hidden until requested.
Illustrative future annual operating contributions, discounted over the selected horizon, less hypothetical restart investment.
Long-run average vessels per year, not actual scheduled whole-ship deliveries.
Modeled output using the assumed CGT workload per ship.
Ship completion equivalents multiplied by assumed contract value.
First point at which modeled cumulative undiscounted operating contributions recover capex.
At full output, before financing, taxes, sustaining capex and working capital.
Modeled annual CGT as a fraction of the 13M CGT schedule-capacity difference.
Steady-state operating economics
Illustrative yearly operating contributions
Years 1–6 and the final model year, showing the effect of startup ramp and later demand assumptions. Negative values are shown in orange.
National scale comparison
Methodology, data boundary and limitations
Full-rate annual vessel equivalents = active newbuilding docks × 12 ÷ months occupied per vessel × productive availability. This estimates a continuous average. It does not schedule actual hulls or confirm that both 300,000-DWT docks are certified and equipped for new ship construction.
Annual CGT = vessel equivalents × assumed CGT per ship. CGT is a compensated construction-work measure. It must not be equated with vessel DWT, the physical size class of the drydocks or annual repair throughput.
Annual contribution = newbuilding sales × (1 − direct construction cost %) − fixed overhead + assumed repair contribution. The yearly calculation applies a selected startup ramp and a possible reduction in newbuilding utilization beginning Year 4. Repair contribution and overhead remain constant under this simplified model.
NPV = − upfront restart capex + sum of annual operating contributions / (1 + discount rate)^year. The simple payback measure uses cumulative undiscounted annual contribution. Negative contributions are included. This is a preliminary sensitivity calculation, not a complete shipyard project-finance model.
Financial results exclude working-capital requirements, customer advance payments, capitalized construction costs, taxes, debt funding, interest, depreciation, ongoing sustaining capex, terminal value and shipbuilding contract milestone timing. Real financial returns could differ substantially. The assumed repair contribution is not derived from the reported RMB300 million cumulative repair output, which is a production-value figure, not operating profit.
Source boundary: The two 300,000-DWT-class docks are published site characteristics. China's 45M CGT scheduled 2028 deliveries and 32M annual capacity are industry-level estimates. No actual investment amount, CGT target, newbuilding vessel program or restart date has been announced for Quanzhou in the materials reviewed.
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