The "crown jewel" of the shipbuilding industry -- a large cruise ship -- has good news again! The second domestically produced large cruise ship has begun to be assembled and carried, and the construction has entered a period of acceleration.
On April 20, the 341-meter-long, 37.2-meter-wide, and total tonnage of more than 140,000 tons, the domestic large cruise ship "No. 2", entered the No. 2 dock of China Shipbuilding Group Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., which is expected to be undocked at the end of March 2026 and named and delivered by the end of 2026. This marks the basic formation of the mass design and construction capacity of cruise ship construction in the mainland.
Renderings of the second domestic large cruise ship (courtesy of AIDA Cruises)
In November 2023, the first domestically produced large-scale cruise ship "Aida Modu" was named and delivered, giving China a place in the global large-scale cruise ship design and construction. In January this year, the "Aida Modu" officially opened its first commercial voyage and sailed into people's lives.
The first large-scale cruise ship made in China "Aida Modu"
Now, the second domestic cruise ship is coming, what are the differences with the first one?
It's bigger. Compared with the first ship, the total tonnage increased by 6,400 tons to 141,900 tons, the total length increased by 17.4 meters to 341 meters, the width was 37.2 meters, and the number of guest rooms increased by 19 to 2,144. By optimizing the design layout, the public area and outdoor leisure area of the "No. 2 ship" have also increased by 735 square meters and 1,913 square meters respectively compared with the first ship, reaching 25,599 square meters and 14,272 square meters, and the experience of leisure and entertainment will be further improved.
Although it was larger, the speed of construction was accelerated. The "No. 2 ship" is expected to be undocked by the end of March 2026 and can be named and delivered before the end of 2026. Up to now, the overall progress of "No. 2 Ship" has exceeded 20%, and the design, construction, procurement, logistics and other work are progressing in an orderly manner.
Large cruise ships are known as the "crown jewels" of the shipbuilding industry for their complex integration and lean processes of "giant systems" engineering. High-end equipment itself is a "testing ground" for innovation ability, and every step is not easy.
"Ship No. 2" is more "local". Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. continues to strengthen international cooperation while continuously improving the local matching rate. At present, the main bulk materials used on cruise ships, such as laminated sheets, paints, profiles and outfitting materials, have been fully localized. For some key equipment, we will actively guide international suppliers to cross-border docking with high-quality supply chains in domestic industrial fields such as building materials, transportation equipment, power and electrical, promote the continuous integration of Chinese elements into the global cruise supply chain and industrial chain, promote the construction of local cruise supporting industrial clusters, and create a complete cruise industry chain.
"Heavy weapons" have their own big fortunes. Large cruise ships not only lie in the large volume of millions and tens of millions of parts, but also in the difficulty of comprehensive research and development and integrated innovation, and also in the promotion of key research and industrial upgrading.
The domestically produced large cruise ship "Ship No. 2" entered the dock. (Photo courtesy of Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co., Ltd.)
Chen Gang, general manager of China Shipbuilding Group Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., said that although compared with the world's first-class large cruise ships, domestic large cruise ships are still in their infancy, but the completion of this leap from scratch marks the realization of the mainland's shipbuilding industry to achieve full-spectrum construction capabilities. Domestic large-scale cruise ships have integrated the cruise supply chain ecology of the world's "1+100+1500" (that is, 1 final assembly enterprise + 100 general contractors + 1000 suppliers) to form a cruise supply chain "map", laying a solid foundation for the mass construction of large-scale cruise ships.
"Through large-scale cruise projects, it will help build an industrial innovation system integrating technical demand, product development, technological innovation, technology verification and industrialization. Yang Guobing, chairman of China Shipbuilding Cruise Technology Development Co., Ltd., said.
Zhou Qi, deputy general manager of China Shipbuilding Group Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., introduced that at present, in addition to the domestic large cruise ship "No. 2 ship", Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding is also accelerating the research and development of the design and development of super-large, small and medium-sized cruise ships, in order to form a pedigree and large-scale development of cruise products, and form a domestic large-scale cruise fleet to go to sea with the wind.
Editor: Wu Baixin
Source: Xinhua News Agency chatterbox
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