Hengli Heavy Industries Group Co., Ltd.

Hengli Heavy Industries Group Co., Ltd. is a Chinese shipbuilding champion created by Hengli Group, the private petrochemical conglomerate, which in 2022-2023 revitalised the insolvent STX Dalian assets into the Changxing Island mega yard, headquartered in Dalian, Liaoning. By end-2025 it had amassed the world's second-largest shipbuilding order book by deadweight tonnage - 272 vessels totalling 41.6 million DWT, equal to 12.5% of all Chinese yard orders and exceeding most incumbent Korean shipbuilders.

Company Overview

Hengli Heavy Industries operates a single-site industrial complex on Changxing Island, Dalian that ranks among the world's largest integrated shipbuilding facilities, combining mega dry docks, ultra-heavy gantry cranes, steel plate processing and an independent marine engine factory. The group's workforce numbers in the tens of thousands. In 2025 it booked more than RMB 100 billion of new ship orders and, through an asset swap into the Shanghai-listed vehicle *ST Songfa (SSE: 603268), projected full-year revenue of RMB 20-22 billion with net profit of RMB 2.4-2.7 billion, demonstrating rapid conversion of capacity into profit. Its orderbook spans bulk carriers, VLCCs and large containerships, extending well into 2028-2029.

Key Strengths

Hengli's defining advantage is its self-built engine capability: the in-house Hengli main-engine works has delivered more than 70 dual-fuel (LNG and methanol) propulsion units, making the group one of the very few yards worldwide with a complete vertical chain from steel plate to power system to final vessel assembly - a decisive differentiator under the ranking's autonomous-production criterion. Its order scale is its second pillar: 41.6 million DWT of backlog places it second globally behind only CSSC, giving it pricing power and scale economies that most rivals cannot match. Third, the backing of Hengli Group's petrochemical empire provides financial strength and captive client relationships, enabling aggressive capacity investment, including a planned annual throughput of millions of deadweight tonnes at Changxing Island.

Risks & Outlook

The principal risks stem from youth and concentration: the yard's delivery record is short - only four vessels in 2024 with 17 planned for 2025 - and its capability in ultra-complex tonnage such as LNG carriers, FLNG or deep-sea platforms remains unproven. The listed vehicle *ST Songfa still carries a delisting-risk designation pending final audit results, and the business is heavily concentrated in standard bulk and container segments. Looking forward, the trajectory is explosive: order intake volume, engine self-sufficiency and infrastructure ramp-up all point to one of the most aggressive capacity expansions in modern shipbuilding history, and the group is widely cited as a future top-five global player if it sustains delivery reliability through its 2026-2028 build-out.

The scale of Hengli's physical operation is difficult to overstate: the Changxing Island complex includes multiple giant dry docks, 600-to-1,000-tonne class gantry cranes and a dedicated steel-indexing and block-production campus, all within one contiguous site - among the largest single-location shipbuilding facilities on earth. The integrated engine works, which has shipped more than 70 dual-fuel main engines, pairs every hull with a domestically produced power plant, eliminating the engine-supply bottleneck that constrains many rival yards. Commercially, the group has leveraged Hengli Group's global petrochemical relationships and captive client base to secure long serial runs of bulk carriers and tankers, and it is actively quoting LNG carrier and offshore-related work as its engineering teams mature. The 2025-2026 asset swap into *ST Songfa (SSE: 603268) provides a public-market platform for the shipyard business, with projected group revenue of RMB 20-22 billion and net profit of RMB 2.4-2.7 billion for 2025.

VerityRank Score of 85/100