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SCMP Reporter

CHINA'S high-speed ferry building industry will receive a boost from the completion of Phase 2 of the Nam Fai Shipyard in Panyu in southern China next month.

  More than HK$100 million has been invested in the shipyard, which opened last year.

  It is a joint venture of A. Fai High Performance Ships and Southern Shipping and Enterprise, both of Hong Kong. A. Fai is also manager of the 50,000-square-metre yard, the largest of its kind in China.

  It has an exclusive licence from AMD Australia to build its medium to large - 35 metres and over - vessels.

  The Phase 2 production shed is 100 metres long, 84 metres wide, and has a clear height of 25 metres.

  This allows up to four 100-metre long ferries to be built simultaneously.

  When in full production, the shipyard will employ more than 800 people, according to A. Fai marketing manager Antony Szeto.

  The yard is the only one in China capable of building high-speed aluminium vessels larger than the AMD1,500 wave piercing catamaran, the Hayabusa, launched in Japan in December.

     Built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, the 100-metre long Hayabusa is the largest wave piercing catamaran in the world.

  It can carry 460 passengers and 94 cars at a speed of 35.5 knots.

  The yard will use Australian design technologies and adopt a mixture of a modern management style suited for China, Mr Szeto said.

  'As a major repairer of aluminium high speed ships in Hong Kong, A. Fai is aware of the problems which emerge through poor workmanship,' he said.

  In view of quality control problems in China, A. Fai had taken extra steps to overcome this, he said.

   These include setting up relationships with local technical colleges to assure jobs for their top graduates, further education at the shipyard's own training centre, hiring quality control managers and introducing employees' work incentive schemes.

  Since the yard opened four aluminium vessels have been delivered, with two more close to completion.

  'Australian and Japanese counterparts, who visited the yard recently, expressed surprise at the quality of work achieved,' Mr Szeto said.

  He said an official of the China State Shipbuilding Corp cited the importance of the yard as a stepping stone to creating a modern high-speed ferry building industry on the mainland.

  The Nam Fai Shipyard is the fifth A. Fai has set up since it began operations in 1949.

  'It is also our largest and will be used as a platform to help launch the company on the international market,' he said.

  The company's other yards are located in Shekou and Suzhou   A. Fai built Hong Kong's first aluminium high-speed catamaran in 1982 for the Hong Kong-Jiangmen route.

  The vessel, Mingzhu Hu, is now operating in Wunzhou.



China ferry yard expands