China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) on Monday began construction on the Changxing Shipbuilding Base on the Shanghai coast, which will be the largest shipyard in the world.

The base was built on Changxing Island with a water frontage of eight kilometers. Its annual shipbuilding capacity would reach 8 million tons when it is completed in 2015, said the CSSC president Chen Xiaojin.

The first phase of the construction, about 15 per cent of the total area, is to enclose and fill a sea area of 1.8 million square meters by the end of next year.

Meanwhile, design companies from Europe, Japan and the Republic of Korea have been invited to bid for the project. The result would come out in February of 2004, Chen said.

Shanghai, where China's shipbuilding industry originated, now has an annual shipbuilding tonnage of 3 million tons. The new shipyard would help increase Shanghai's shipbuilding capacity to 12 million tons in 2015, said Chen.

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