(Yicai) Aug. 28 -- Zhenhua Heavy Industries has launched two of Asia’s largest trailing suction hopper dredgers, marking a milestone in China’s high-end marine engineering development.

The two ultra-large vessels were designed by state-owned infrastructure giant China Communications Construction (CCCC) and built by Shanghai-based ZPMC. They were launched recently in Jiangsu province, The Paper reported yesterday.

These vessels represent the latest in China’s high-end, intelligent, and green dredging technology, said Jiang Song, executive general manager of CCCC’s dredging division. He added that the ships hold strategic value in boosting China’s competitiveness in the global high-end market.

China’s marine economy has expanded rapidly in recent years, with annual gross output exceeding CNY10 trillion (USD1.4 trillion), Jiang noted. Rising port throughput has also boosted demand for port infrastructure and pushed dredging equipment development toward larger capacities and deeper water capabilities, he said.

Each dredger has a maximum hopper capacity of 35,000 cubic meters, equivalent to the volume of 14 Olympic-sized swimming pools. This makes them the most powerful vessels of their kind in Asia. The ships measure 198 meters in length, nearly 39 meters in width, and 18 meters in depth. They can dredge to depths of up to 120 meters. A single operation can remove enough material to raise the surface of a standard football field by five meters.

The dredgers are expected to be used across various engineering scenarios, including port and waterway dredging, deep-sea sand extraction, land reclamation, and deep-sea mining, the executive added.

Equipped with an intelligent dredging system developed by CCCC, the vessels are capable of unmanned operations under standard conditions. They also use artificial intelligence to monitor underwater terrain in real time and automatically adapt to different seabed types, significantly improving efficiency and safety, said Zhang Qingbo, vice president of CCCC Dredging Group.

The vessels feature a hybrid power system and a lifecycle carbon reduction design that improves power efficiency by 30 percent compared to similar ships. Their total carbon emissions are expected to be 600,000 tons lower over their lifetimes, according to CCCC.

Editor: Emmi Laine