SEOUL - Samsung Heavy Industries Co, the world's No 3 shipbuilder, will build a hull block factory in the northeastern Chinese province of Shandong as part of its efforts to expand operations in the world's fastest-growing economy, the company said March 7. The company held a groundbr eaking ceremony the same day for the wholly owned subsidiary Samsung Heavy Industries Rongcheng Co, to be built at an investment of US$50 million.

　　The factory, on a 661,160-square-meter site, is projected to have an annual production capacity of 100,000 tons of blocks, it said. Its completion is scheduled for January 2008. Samsung Heavy

　　Industries decided to build a new factory in China as a result of difficulties in recruiting workers and expanding its current Geoje shipyard on the southeastern coast of South Korea, it said.

　　In addition, the city of Rongcheng gave the South Korean company a 50-year free lease for the factory site and other favorable conditions, company officials said. Since 1997, the company has been operating a subsidiary in the city of Ningbo on China's eastern coast that has an annual production capacity of 120,000 tons.

　　Hull blocks are large pieces of a ship which are bolted together at a final assembly site to make the finished vessel. Many commercial ships are now made this way rather than with traditional methods, which lay the keel and then build the structure upward, because block construction is more efficient.

　　(Asia Pulse/Yonhap)