China State Shipbuilding Corp (CSSC) is preparing a plan to create the country's largest shipbuilding group through the merger of companies in Liaoning.
Dalian New Shipyard, Dalian Shipyard and Bohai Shipyard - among China's top-six shipbuilders - will form the backbone of the group with the support of other parts and components makers.
Liaoning Economic & Trade Commission director Wang Huabin said the provincial government hoped the merger to form Liaoning Shipbuilding Group could take place by next year.
It would join one of the 10 group companies in the province expected to have sales worth 10 billion yuan (about HK$9.33 billion) by 2000.
The shipbuilding giant would be a bellwether in industrial development in the province, accounting for about half of the country's total output by 2000, Mr Wang said.
A CSSC official said it had just started studying the merger plan.