Shanghai Begins Work on New Shipyard

Construction has begun on what China says will eventually be the world’s biggest shipyard, part of the country’s plan for taking a dominant role in the industry.

China’s biggest shipbuilding company began building the 8-kilometer-long (5-mile-long) facility late last week on an island in the Yangtze river, north of Shanghai, state media reported.

The US$3.6 billion (euro2.9 billion) new shipyard is meant to quadruple Shanghai’s current shipbuilding capacity to 12 million tons by 2015.