China's World No.1 Gantry Crane

       The Offshore Ambition of the World's Largest Gantry Crane

       This "triumphal arch" capable of lifting 22,000 tons represents a private company's determination to "go to sea"

       "Honghai," currently the world's largest gantry crane with a lifting capacity of 22,000 tons, stands 50 stories tall and can hoist 400 high-speed rail carriages. It is the work of Zhang Mi, president of Honghua Group, the world's second-largest manufacturer of land-based oil rigs. 55-year-old Sui Shaoyuan is the chief construction commander.

       The 70% completed "Honghai" has already attracted foreign clients, including a $320 million semi-submersible platform construction award letter, and a South Korean shipowner has entrusted Honghua Group with the construction of a $200 million oil tanker; all these will be launched using "Honghai."

       Honghua Group "Goes to Sea"

       "President Zhang said we should build a large crane to lift offshore platforms and place them directly into the water." At the end of 2009, Sui Shaoyuan first arrived in the small port city of Qidong, Jiangsu, and was not assigned by Zhang Mi to his old trade of offshore rigs, but to participate in the design of a large crane.

       Honghua Group's "going to sea" path is unique: Zhang Mi abandoned the traditional approach of building offshore platforms in dry docks and moved construction onshore.

       Honghua Group was originally a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation. After restructuring at the end of 1997, Zhang Mi and other management became shareholders. For ten years after its founding, it focused on overseas land rig and spare parts markets.

       Currently, more than 700 rigs produced by Honghua Group are in operation worldwide, but all profits come from land rigs. The single business also caused Honghua Group to lose 127 million yuan in the 2009 financial crisis. In addition, the global trend of oil and gas development shifting from land to sea is obvious. Of the 3.19 billion Hong Kong dollars raised by Honghua Group's listing in Hong Kong in 2008, 60% was used for offshore projects.

       Zhang Mi once told reporters that they hope by around 2017, the offshore engineering business will at least match the onshore business.

       Honghua Group's consideration is that the rig package accounts for the most profitable part of offshore oil platforms, and its land rig market share leads globally.

       "The role of the rig package in an offshore platform is equivalent to that of a CPU in a computer. Honghua's advantage in manufacturing offshore rig platforms is unique in China," said Sui Shaoyuan.

       "Honghai" requires an investment of 370 million yuan, accounting for one-fifth of Honghua Group's entire offshore investment. Can it be effective and bring benefits? As a new thing, are there technical risks? What impact would problems have on Honghua's strategy... Both within the industry and inside the company, there are concerns and disputes.

       Sui Shaoyuan is a supporter of Zhang Mi's concept of "building offshore products on land." "Honghua's influence in the offshore engineering industry is not yet large enough. We must show our skills to the 'martial arts masters' to gain recognition. 'Honghai' can overcome the water depth bottleneck, and Honghua's future orders will involve low, medium, and high-end markets. If building an offshore platform takes one or two years and occupies a large dry dock, that is also unrealistic."

       "Honghai" is also attractive to users. Using it to build offshore platforms can shorten the construction period by 20% to 30% and reduce costs by 5% to 10% compared with traditional methods.

       In the end, Zhang Mi persuaded the board of directors.

       Difficulty Comparable to Building the "Bird's Nest"

       Zhang Mi first proposed a plan and asked Honghua Marine to optimize it based on the plan.

       Li Ping, deputy general manager of Honghua Marine, handed the specific design to Sui Shaoyuan, whose team produced a total of eight plans, repeatedly comparing technical, economic, and other factors.

       In early 2010, team members traveled frantically, communicating with five design and construction units in Wuhan, Dalian, Shanghai, and abroad to determine the best choice for building "Honghai."

       However, the construction of "Honghai" was not suitable for bidding: it was a new thing with no finalized standards, and parameters, plans, and technical indicators were all undetermined.

       Honghua Group ultimately signed a joint design agreement with a Wuhan enterprise. For any major issues, Sui Shaoyuan and the Wuhan engineers still had to go together to the Honghua Group headquarters in Chengdu to see Zhang Mi.

       The design actually took only one year. The technical maturity of "Honghai" was everyone's greatest concern. The design team focused on optimizing the design, researching cost reduction and improving technical reliability.