Hanjin Shipping ship repair yard opens

Hanjin Shipping announced that ZESCO (Zhejiang Eastern Shipyard Co., Ltd.), its ship repair yard, received official approval from the Chinese government to repair foreign ships.

According to Hanjin Shipping, ZESCO is located in Qushan Island of Zhejiang Province near Shanghai Yang Shan Port. With the completion of phase-1, the yard sits on land of 550,000㎡ with a 150,000 DWT-dock, 300,000 DWT-dock and a quay of 670m. When phase-2 is completed, it will also have a 400,000 DWT-dock with a quay of 640m.

Set up back in May, 2007 and constructed last March, ZESCO successfully repaired 14 ships since last April under temporary approval from the Chinese government. According to the company, once the ship repair industry recovers, ZESCO will be able to repair around 150 ships a year and as soon as the phase-2 is completed, it will become a mega-sized ship repair yard with a capacity for 300 ships on annual basis.

Hanjin Shipping commented, We are optimistic that this ship repair yard will turn into a good business considering its location near the world fastest growing hub port and the fact that there is no mega-sized ship repair yard in Korea, attracting ship repair work to China instead.

The company added, ?e believe that receiving the official approval for repairing foreign ships will increase our business. In fact, we have already had inquiries from a number of ship owners and our book for September is already full. We expect it to be a stable source of income for us.

Meanwhile, with this new ship repair yard, Hanjin Shipping is now able to repair its ships under stable conditions. Also, as Hanjin Shipping is planning to expand its current ship repair business to off-shore and FPSO (Floating Production Storage Offloading), the company believes that it will become one of its major drive forces for sustainable growth. <Korea Shipping Gazette>