The first domestic large-scale cruise ship started construction and is scheduled to be delivered in the second half of 2023.
Renderings of China’s first domestic large-scale cruise ship.
On October 18th, The Paper learned from China State Shipbuilding Corporation (hereinafter referred to as CSSC) that China’s first domestic large-scale cruise ship officially started cutting ignition steel plates in Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of CSSC, and entered the substantive construction stage in an all-round way.
According to the introduction of CSSC, this marks that China’s shipbuilding industry has officially entered a new era of large-scale cruise ship construction, and won the "last pearl in the crown of shipbuilding industry". The dream of China shipbuilders is just around the corner, which will definitely have a significant and far-reaching impact on China’s construction of a maritime power, a manufacturing power and a scientific and technological power.
According to the introduction of CSSC, the first domestic large-scale cruise ship has about 70 public areas, and each area has a large number of systems. The systems and regions need to cooperate and interact with each other to ensure the normal operation of the area. How to sort out the logical relationship between complex systems and complete the design and construction work more scientifically and effectively through system integration has become the focus and difficulty of the current large-scale cruise ship project.
Facing the problem of system integration of huge projects, in terms of design, CSSC has introduced the latest international three-dimensional design software, and invested a large number of design talents and IT assistants to continuously carry out secondary development of the software to ensure that the software can fully meet the modeling needs of large cruise ships; In terms of construction management, the upgrade and integrated development of SWSTIME system, based on the basic process of shipbuilding management in the past, greatly improved the original ship construction management ability, and realized the full-time tracking of 25 million parts of large cruise ships from design, procurement, production and construction, commissioning to delivery, and realized scientific and efficient production and construction through digital mode.
This large cruise ship, which started on October 18th, has a gross tonnage of about 135,500, a total length of 323.6m and a width of 37.2m. It can accommodate up to 5,246 passengers and has 2,125 guest rooms. The shipowner is CSIC Carnival Cruise Co., Ltd., designed by CSIC Cantieny Cruise Industry Development Co., Ltd., and classified into Lloyd’s Register of Shipping and China Register of Shipping. It is planned to be put into operation in the second half of 2023.
Chen Ranfeng, general manager of CSIC Carnival Cruise Co., Ltd. and chairman of Carnival Group in Asia, said at the groundbreaking ceremony that the design and construction of large cruise ships not only represents the transformation and upgrading of China’s shipbuilding industry, but also will create extremely high economic value. "The cruise manufacturing industry that we are about to jointly build in Shanghai will create more jobs, create new supply chains, increase procurement opportunities and continuously promote technological innovation, and the multiplier effect of the cruise economy will be further amplified. Through the application of high technology, China’s overall high-end manufacturing capability will be further enhanced. "
Chen Ranfeng said that he is optimistic about the huge potential of China’s cruise industry and cruise market development, and believes that China will become the largest cruise market in the world. "In the future, the project teams of CSSC-Carnival and Carnival Group will continue to play the role of shipowners, maintain close cooperation with Waigaoqiao Shipyard, ensure the smooth and quality delivery of the first cruise ship in 2023, and lay a solid foundation for completing the order of 2+4 cruise ships."
According to the introduction of CSSC, the large-scale cruise project is the No.1 project of CSSC to promote high-quality development. In order to implement and promote this project, CSSC has set up a leading group for the development of cruise industry, and CSSC Technology Development Co., Ltd., an important platform for the development of cruise industry, and established a professional cruise management and design company with Carnival Group, the world’s largest cruise company, and Fen Cantieny Group, the world’s largest cruise construction company — — China Shipbuilding Carnival Cruise Co., Ltd. and China Shipbuilding Fen Cantieny Cruise Industry Development Co., Ltd..
In September this year, CSSC, a subsidiary of CSSC, signed a memorandum agreement with Shanghai Baoshan District Committee and Government to jointly build a cruise operation and supporting industrial chain. A series of measures are aimed at accelerating the establishment of a large-scale cruise industry chain integrating R&D, design, manufacturing, operation, supporting and service, and accelerating the construction of an international high-end cruise technology industrial park.
At the same time, a number of adaptive renovation projects for large cruise shipyards, such as the renovation of special cruise docks designed and built by CSSC Ninth Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Shipbuilding Technology Research Institute, have been fully rolled out and will be put into use in a few days.
It is understood that compared with the mature cruise industry system in Europe and America, China’s cruise market started late, but developed rapidly. In the past decade, China’s cruise tourism industry has developed rapidly, and the number of cruise tourists has increased dramatically. It is estimated that the total number of cruise tourists in China will reach 14 million by 2035, and China may become one of the largest cruise tourism markets in the world.
However, at present, the construction capacity of large-scale cruise ships in the world is slightly insufficient. The annual production capacity of cruise ships with a gross tonnage of over 70,000 tons in Europe is only about 8, and the number of cruise ships delivered before 2025 is basically full. As the most potential emerging cruise market in the world, China is facing a rare historical opportunity to vigorously develop cruise economy, cruise industry and cruise equipment.
In this regard, CSSC will design and build large-scale cruise ships as the "No.1 Project" for high-quality development, and strive to open a new era of large-scale cruise ship construction. On November 6, 2018, at the first China International Import Expo, CSSC officially signed 2+4 Vista-class large cruise ships with a gross tonnage of 135,000 tons with American Carnival Group and Italian Fen Cantieny Group, marking a new page for China’s shipbuilding industry.
Large-scale cruise ship is one of the most difficult ship types in the shipbuilding industry. It is known as a comprehensive and intensive giant system project of modern industry and modern city construction, which directly reflects a country’s comprehensive scientific and technological level and manufacturing strength. It is the only high-tech ship product with no design and construction achievements in China. Compared with the traditional three mainstream ship types, the design concept, construction technology, operation management and other aspects of large cruise ships are very different. The design standards are far higher than other ship products, and the design work is huge. For example, Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding imported 150,000 pages of design drawings and construction management documents from Cantieny, nearly 2.1 tons, and the whole ship consists of 25 million parts.