China announced a new super-built island ship

China has announced the giant dredging ship Tiankun with a load of 17,000 tons and can suck up to 6,000m3 of soil and sand every hour from a depth of 35m.

Japan Times said the newly built giant island ship Tiankun was introduced at a port in Jiangsu province in early November. China Daily called the new ship "magic factory", one of the ships. Dredging, building the largest and most advanced island in the area.

Tiankun ship is 140m long, 17,000 tons of water is available. The ship has a capacity of up to 6,000m 3 of soil and sand every hour from a depth of 35m, so every hour the ship can dig a volume equivalent to 3 standard swimming pools.

According to Shanghai Maritime Research and Design Institute, Tiankun is the most modern island construction ship in Asia, which can be used for coastal dredging and land filling activities even in bad weather conditions. . The Tiankun vessel is expected to be put into operation from 6/2018.

Picture 1 of China announced a new super-built island ship
The new island builder Tiankun just announced the Chinese.(Photo: China Daily).

Fei Long, deputy design director of the Maritime Research and Design Institute, said: 'Tiankun's development indicates that we have become one of the leaders in maritime engineering.'

Alex Neill, a senior member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), said the true meaning of announcing the giant island builder was that it could be deployed to restore filling operations at East Sea.

China has carried out illegal reclamation of seven entities on Vietnam's Spratly Islands to turn coral reefs into giant artificial islands. Several artificial islands have been built with runways, radar installations and weapons systems. Under the criticism of the international community, China's illegal dumping activity halted at the end of 2016.

However, the announcement of the new giant dredging vessel shows that Beijing can continue its sea-level activities, said Financial Times. China has invested a lot of money in the dredging industry in the last decade, with about 200 ships built since 2006, making Beijing one of the world's largest island builders.