June of 2023 heralded another first for China; the launch of the country’s first largest-scale cruise ship entirely domestically built. And in our very own Jiangsu, we played a key role in its construction, with shipbuilding a specialty of Zhenjiang City.
It was on 6 June that the Adora Magic City was launched from the No.2 dock of the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipyard. At 323.60 metres in length and 135,500 gross tonnes, the Adora Magic City is capable of carrying 5,246 passengers.
The vessel is at present undergoing the process of mooring tests, sea trial, naming and ultimately delivery, to its customer, CSSC Carnival Cruise Shipping.
As Cruise Industry News reports, Chen Ranfeng, Managing Director of CSSC, said, “We are thrilled to announce the name of our first Chinese-built large cruise ship. Adora Magic City is not just a cruise ship, but a captivating experience that presents the best of Chinese hospitality and global cruising practice. We can’t wait to share this unforgettable journey with our guests”.
But it may have never happened were it not for Zhenjiang’s shipbuilding industry.
The challenge was that in order to control the weight, cruise ships are typically thin-plate ships. In the case of the Adora Magic City, 80 percent of the entire ship employs plates with a thickness of 4 to 8 millimetres. However, such thin plates become easily deformed during the construction process.
Taking on the technical difficulties presented by a project with such national significance was the scientific research team of the Marine Equipment Research Institute of Jiangsu University of Science and Technology.
Invited to participate in technical research, the team put more than 2 years in to developing that termed “high-quality electromagnetic induction leveling equipment”, as Our Jiangsu reports.
Intensely proud of their achievement in solving the problem, Professor Gu Jiayang, Dean of the Jiangke Marine Decoration Institute, said, “Our thin-plate orthopedic technology and equipment… not only solve the existing problems of domestic cruise ships, but also have good prospects for promotion and application”.
Zhenjiang was undoubtedly the right choice for the job. The City’s shipbuilding history can be traced back to long ago; it had already become an important shipbuilding base in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. With Zhenjiang Shipyard founded in 1951 as the first shipbuilding enterprise in Jiangsu, in Zhenjiang, all things maritime have become a simple tradition.
