With the first pile being driven into the ground, the ship-repairing project of China State Shipbuilding Corporation CSSC, the Nansha Longxue Shipbuilding Base, was begun. Following the completion of this project in 2008, the shipbuilding and repairing capacity of Guangzhou will increase from 60,000 tons to 300,000 tons and Longxue will become the largest modern shipbuilding base in south China. 

The Mayor of Guangzhou, Zhang Guangning, vice mayors Chen Mingde and Gan Xin, CSSC General Manager Chen Xiaojin attended the project commencement ceremony.

The shipbuilding industry is one of the four major industries of Nansha. The Longxue shipbuilding base, 4.5km long and 1.3km wide and is located at the north of the east coast of Longxue Island; where, except for some coastal areas, 5.5 million square meters can be used for industrial purpose. 

The construction of Longxue Shipbuilding Base is an important strategic step for CSSC to realize its ambition of becoming the world's number one shipbuilding group by 2015; and, for China to become the world's leading shipbuilding country. Equipped with first class hardware and software, it is planed that Longxue will develop into a modern, world renowned shipyard.

Limited by the depth of the Pearl River courses, the current maximum tonnage of a ship built in Guangzhou is 60,000 tons. Longxue Shipbuilding Base, aiming at building large container ships and oil tankers, is expected to have a single ship capacity of 300,000 tons and an annual shipbuilding capacity of two to three million tons. 
Longxue ship-repairing project is one of the major projects of the base. Through its two subsidiaries, CSSC Guangzhou Holding Company and Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard Co. Ltd. (CSSC-GWS), CSSC and Ocean Line Holding Ltd. have jointly established Guangzhou CSSC-Ocean-GWS Marine Engineering Co. Ltd. (CSSC Guangzhou Dockyards) and established a ship-repairing project at Nansha Longxue Base.

Editor: Yan