Zhejiang Shipyard to axe 300 workers in restructuring

Embattled Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group’s Zhejiang Shipyard is planning to let go close to 50% of its current 560 workforce amid the yard’s bankruptcy reorganisation and dwindling workload.

News ID: 75491

Date: 09 August 2017 - 11:30

The privately-owned Zhejiang Shipyard is expected to axe around 300 workers, leaving the rest of about 260 people to work on finishing the handful of shipbuilding orders, reports said according to MANA correspondent.

The local media reported that the Chinese yard’s existing orders comprised of one PSV, one rubble dumping boat, and four fishing vessels. The yard is expected to deliver two of the fishing vessels by end-August.

The PSV order is a series of five ships – two PSVs and three AHTS vessels – contracted by Shanghai Salvage Company’s subsidiary Shenzhen Huawei Offshore, and the original delivery date for all five ships was end-2016.

On 11 July this year, Zhejiang Shipyard handed over the first PSV to Huawei Offshore and the second unit is on track for completion. But it was unclear if work for the three AHTS vessels will continue.

In September last year, Zhejiang Shipyard held a ship launching ceremony for the first PSV that was delivered, together with a naming ceremony for a AHTS vessel for Singapore’s Vallianz Holdings.

Zhejiang Shipyard was placed under bankruptcy restructuring in April 2016 by a local court in Fenghua city in Zhejiang province.

In its heyday, the Chinese shipyard specialised in the construction of OSVs based on its proprietary inhouse designs. Since its establishment in 2003 until end-2015, the shipyard had delivered 207 ships including 151 OSVs.

Meanwhile, Yangzhou Dayang Shipbuilding, another subsidiary of Sinopacific, has declared bankrupt and ceased all operations in late-July. Dayang Shipbuilding constructs mainly dry bulk carriers based on Sinopacific’s proprietary Crown series designs.