Revived Weihai Samjin Shipbuilding restarts operations

The investor, a Chinese businessman, is identified as Xu Caizhong by the local media. Xu, who was present at the groundbreaking ceremony, said Weihai Samjin will aim to deliver six ships this year, and to gradually improve and expand the yard facilities.

Xu said there are two main reasons for savingf Weihai Samjin, with the first being favourable policy support given by Weihai city authorities. He added: “Secondly, Weihai Samjin is a Korean-invested yard, and such a Korean-invested business model is rare in China. We believe Weihai Samjin already has the much-needed technological edge against its competitors.”

The investor has signed up for ten 11,000 dwt oil tankers with the yard for work to commence in end-March.

Bankrupt Weihai Samjin had earlier gained approval from a local court to start a restructuring to revive operations after Xu agreed to pump in RMB300m ($46m) into the yard.

Established in November 2000, Weihai Samjin was hit hard by the 2008 global financial crisis and was declared bankrupt in September 2014.