China’s Hengli Group is mulling listing its shipbuilding company — Hengli Heavy Industry on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, according to Bloomberg.
The Dalian-based shipyard, which is doubling its production capacity with new facilities, plans to raise $100m for the shipyard through the IPO, the report said.
The timeline for the listing has not been disclosed, but Hengli is said to be holding talks with financial advisers.
On Thursday, Hengli Heavy broke ground to construct the yard’s phase 2 project, which will have an annual shipbuilding capacity of 1.8m dwt as well as 1.8m tonnes of steel processing capacity.
The Hengli Group is putting down around CNY 11bn ($1.5bn) on the expansion project.
The new facility will lift Hengli Heavy’s annual shipbuilding capacity to 7.1m tonnes, more than twice its current output.
Hengli Heavy plans to construct high-value-added green ships and advanced offshore equipment, including VLCCs, VLGCs, ultra-large container ships, offshore floating production units, storage tankers, drillships and other specialised vessels.
Shipbuilding sources said Hengli Heavy is also expanding its current dry dock, which will allow the builder to construct up to four VLCCs.
Hengli Heavy is the former STX Dalian Shipbuilding, established by South Korea’s STX Group.
It exited shipbuilding in 2013 with the collapse of the market. Hengli Group acquired STX Dalian in 2022 for CNY 1.73bn ($240m) to turn it into an offshore manufacturing base and shipbuilding yard.
Hengli Heavy’s first newbuilding deal was from its parent company, which signed up for four 20,000-dwt bulker newbuildings to transport coal from Qinhuangdao to Dalian.
In the past two years, the shipyard has expanded its product portfolio to include VLCCs, aframax tankers, VLOCs, capesize and kamsarmax bulk carriers.
Clarksons’ Shipping Intelligence Network lists Hengli Heavy with 72 newbuildings booked on its orderbook.
Its current customers include Winning International, Reederei Vogemann, Sea Traders, Dynacom, Dalian Sea Fortune, among others.
