Chinese shipbuilder Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries (ZPMC) recently held a keel-laying ceremony for a new 25,000-cubic-metre trailing suction hopper dredger at its offshore engineering facility, officially launching the vessel into its full assembly phase.
The ship is described as China's first self-propelled trailing suction hopper dredger to feature a distributed in-hold dredge pump system.
The 180-metre vessel will have a breadth of 36 metres, a depth of 17.2 metres, and will be capable of dredging at depths of up to 120 metres. Its hopper capacity will be 27,580 cubic metres.
ZPMC said the twin-engine, twin-propeller, and twin-suction design incorporates advanced automation features, including a "one-click dredging" functionality and an integrated dredging and navigation system that enables unmanned operations under normal conditions.
According to the builder, the dredger's distributed pump system, combined with dual bow discharge technology, delivers a 30 per cent improvement in dredging efficiency while maintaining “low-carbon” operations throughout the entire dredging process.
