Yantai CIMC Raffles Shipyard () is a

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other Watercraft, floating vessels. In modern times, it normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation th ...

company in

Yantai Yantai, formerly known as Chefoo, is a coastal prefecture-level city on the Shandong Peninsula in northeastern Shandong province of the People's Republic of China. Lying on the southern coast of the Bohai Strait, Yantai borders Qingdao ...

, Shandong Province,

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. The shipyard is one of three operated by CIMC Raffles Offshore Ltd. Yantai Raffles specializes in offshore and marine fabrication, and shares in the company have been traded on the Oslo OTC system in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

since May 2006. In 1994, Brian Chang, a Singaporean of South African descent, founded Yantai Raffles at the junction of Bohai Bay and the

Yellow Sea The Yellow Sea, also known as the North Sea, is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and can be considered the northwestern part of the East China Sea. Names It is one of four ...

. The shipyard is in close proximity to

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, an area that accounts for 80% of the global shipbuilding capacity. YRS is the only shipyard in China to be majority foreign-owned. It has agreed to acquire 100% of the Sanlian Longkou shipyard in Shandong, China. Since March 2013, it has been a wholly own subsidiary of CIMC.

History

Chang founded Yantai Raffles Offshore Limited (YRS) in 1994. Previously, he had worked with various companies in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

and

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

in the marine industry, including Mobil, Jardine Offshore, M.J Batty and Far East Shipyard (now known as Keppel FELS) between 1965 and 1970. In 1971, he started his own company, Promet (now known as PPL), which grew in size over his decade-long tenure. He has worked for 40 years in the shipbuilding and marine fabrication sector, overseeing more than 600 marine construction projects. Yantai Raffles became known as CIMC Raffles after CIMC invested in the company. By March 2013, CIMC had acquired all outstanding shares of CIMC Raffles. It will now become a subsidiary of CIMC Offshore Holdings Co., Ltd.

Types of vessels built

Semi-submersible Semi-submersible may refer to a self-propelled vessel, such as: *Heavy-lift ship, which partially submerge to allow their cargo (another ship) to float into place for transport *Narco-submarine, some of which remained partially on the surface *S ...

drilling rig * Jack-up drilling rig *Platform conversion *Platform supply vessel *Anchor handling tug supply vessel *Heavy lift carrier *Floating, production, storage and offloading Vessel (FPSO) *Mono-hull circular column FPSO *Floating, production and offloading vessel (FPO) *Pipelay vessel * Fallpipe vessel *Semi-submersible bare deck vessel

Yard facilities

*72-hectare shipyard *Building facilities *World's largest

gantry crane A gantry crane is a Crane (machine), crane built atop a wikt:gantry, gantry, which is a structure used to straddle an object or workspace. They can range from enormous "full" gantry cranes, capable of lifting some of the heaviest loads in the wor ...

with lifting capacity of 20,000 metric tonnes *One of the world's largest dry docks (L430m x W120m x D14m) *One of the world's largest land-based pedestal crane *2 X 370 metric tonnes gantry cranes *Fully automated warehouse, with a capacity of 4,000 pallets

World's largest crane

Taisun Taisun (; Mount Tai, Taishan) is a gantry crane with a Lifting equipment#Working load limit, safe working load of 20,000 metric tons (22,046 short tons). Taisun was designed by DHHI (Dalian Huarui Heavy Industry) and built for the installation of ...

, the world's largest gantry crane, with a lifting capacity of 20,000 metric tonnes, took over seven years to plan and an additional 12 months for the preparation of its design framework. It was designed by Dalian Huarui Heavy Industry Group Co., Ltd (DHHI). The crane, capable of muscling up to 10,000 cars in one lift, allows the mating of an entire outfitted deck box of a semi-submersible rig onto its hull/ pontoons in one single operation. The shipyard states that this will reduce work hazards at high altitudes and in the open sea. The lifting of the complete deck box reduces man-hours by as much as half.

References

External links

Yantai Raffles Shipyard website

Oslo OTC Stock Exchange

Video: Construction of the world's largest crane Taisun
''Youtube'' {{Shipbuilding companies of China Shipbuilding companies of China Shipyards of China Companies based in Yantai Manufacturing companies established in 1994 China Merchants Chinese companies established in 1994