DSME started construction of the fifth Royal Dock, which will be the biggest floating dock in the world, on 1st November.
The steel cutting ceremony was held at Daehan Shipbuilding (DS) in the South Korean province of South Jeolla.
The No.5 Royal Dock construction has been undertaken because of the increasing number of new orders for offshore projects such as FPSOs and LNG-FPSOs. As these offshore projects become larger in scale, the need for bigger production facilities increase.
DS has been managed on an entrustment basis by DSME since last June and will be responsible for the construction of the No.5 Royal Dock. By carrying out the construction at DS it is expected that it will not only help by reducing the tight production schedule at DSME, but will also solve the issue of storage at the building site.
This dock will be 85.6m wide, 432m long, and 130,000 DWT, so it will be relatively easy and efficient to build an 18,000TEU containership and any other large vessels up to 68m in width.
The No.5 Royal Dock will be delivered to the Okpo shipyard on December 2012, and will be used to construct three LNG carriers starting in February 2013.
[mappress] World Maritime News Staff, November 22, 2011; Image: Daehan Shipbuilding