CSSC: Ships in the future will transform to digital and low-carbon

With the changing times and technological advancement, the shipbuilding industry is emerging from the traditional industry through continuous transformation.
 
The reporter visited three state-owned shipbuilding enterprises under China State Shipbuilding Corporation-Jiangnan Shipyard, Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding and Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding.
 
As China's first military shipbuilding company with a history of 156 years, Jiangnan Shipyard is currently the world leader in the development and construction of ultra-large liquefied gas ships, ultra-large container ships and other civil ships. The scientific research ships represented by "Xuelong 2" polar scientific research icebreaker occupy the first place in the domestic market.
 
Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding is China's only large-scale LNG Offshore storage and transportation equipment manufacturer. The 23,000TEU dual-fuel container ship is the highlight of China's large-scale LNG carriers. In the process of building the entire LNG industry chain, Hudong Zhonghua has developed a complete spectrum of LNG ships ranging from 20,000 CBM to 270,000 CBM. The product line has been expanded to LNG bunkering ships, LNG-FSRU, LNG-powered ships, and LNG power systems for conversion of traditional fuel tankers.
 
Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding extended one of its docks to 740 meters last year, making it the longest dock in Asia, capable of building two luxury cruise ships simultaneously. At present, more than half of the nodes of the first cruise ship project, and the interior decoration project has been steadily transferred to the actual ship construction stage.
 
Jiangnan Shipyard : Breaking the traditional convention of "production design"
 
The general understanding of shipyards from the outside world almost stays in the state that shipbuilding technology is too traditional. Hu Keyi, chief expert of CSSC and director of Jiangnan Shipyard Science and Technology Committee, said, "In the past traditional mode, Jiangnan was working in a continuous cycle between receiving orders and delivery. There are some principle and basic key technologies in the process of receiving orders. The research is very lacking, including how to improve efficiency and improve quality."
 
In 2016, Jiangnan Shipyard established Jiangnan Research Institute and successively established 8 laboratories, becoming the first shipyard in China to build a large-scale laboratory. At present, more than 30% of the research results of the laboratory have been put into practical application in the shipyard.
 
It is worth noting that among the various indicators of Jiangnan, revenue has continued to grow, but the number of ships delivered has not increased in the same proportion, and may even decline in some years. This is related to Jiangnan's own high-quality development and transformation. The value of each ship has increased significantly, and high-tech and high value-added accounts for the vast majority of the business. Therefore, the total revenue is still achieving steady growth.
 
In 2019, Jiangnan began to pay attention to the concept of industrial interconnection behind the shipbuilding industry, thinking about the new changes brought about by the combination of new technologies and specific ship scenarios, and using this as an opportunity to establish a 5G intelligent manufacturing innovation laboratory. Also in 2019, Jiangnan established a welding manufacturing laboratory and built the first assembly intelligent welding system to overcome technical problems such as "vision + model" recognition and robot welding technology.
 
Hudong-Zhonghua: Chinese shipping companies enter the first array of international LNG equipment
 
So far, Hudong-Zhonghua has completed and delivered 31 sets of 8-type LNG industrial chain equipment, with a total price of more than 40 billion yuan. In the process of updating LNG shipbuilding technology, Chinese shipbuilding companies have entered the first phalanx of international LNG equipment.
 
In the past ten years, Hudong-Zhonghua LNG ship has basically completed the fifth-generation research and development. Technically, the first-generation LNG ship is 147,000 CBM and consumes 190 tons of oil a day, while the fourth-generation ship’s fuel consumption is reduced to about 90 tons. The energy consumption has dropped by nearly 50%. Hudong-Zhonghua LNG ship is equipped with the world's largest dual-fuel power main engine, which uses both gas and oil to ensure clean power.
 
Hudong-Zhonghua's accumulated experience in the field of LNG carriers is also used on 23,000TEU dual-fuel-powered container ships. A membrane fuel tank of 18,600 m3 is used to load liquefied natural gas to provide power for ships and to ensure a voyage of more than 20,000 nautical miles, which can cover a round trip from Europe to the Far East. Compared with traditional fuel container ships, this reduces carbon emissions by 20%, nitrogen oxides by 85%, and sulfur emissions by 99%.
 
Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding: Intelligent Manufacturing
 
At Waigaoqiao shipbuilding site, the reporter learned that 72.83% of the hull construction progress of China's first large-scale luxury cruise ship has been completed, and the cruise ship is expected to be delivered in 2023.
 
At present, large cruise ships are the only high-value-added ship that has not yet been overcome in China.
 
On the one hand, the improvement of intelligent manufacturing, on the other hand, the limitation of the supply chain of large cruise ships has yet to be solved. According to the introduction of Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding, in the future, it will explore European cruise supply chain manufacturers and cooperate with some related enterprises to build a local cruise industry chain as soon as possible.
 
Source: Sarah Yu, XINDE MARINE NEWS

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