Hengli Heavy Industry has been a regular fixture among Splash headlines for the last few years, the northeastern Chinese yard amassing vast amounts of orders from blue chip owners since it was resuscitated by Chen Jianhua in the middle of 2022. The yard recorded an unheard of order every three days throughout 2025, with these strong business lines continuing into 2026. VesselsValue data now shows that Hengli has become the largest shipyard in China by order volume. Over the last year, Hengli received 174 orders, valued at $16bn, according to data from VesselsValue. VLCCs are the vessel of choice at this yard, representing 31% of en bloc orders. Most recently, Capital Maritime and Trading ordered eleven 306,0000 dwt VLCCs scheduled to be delivered in 2028-2029 and contracted for $120m each. LR2 Tankers are the second most popular vessel ordered followed by post panamax containerships. Hengli, now accepting orders deep into 2029, has recently unveiled plans to invest 13.5bn yuan ($1.94bn) in a major capacity expansion initiative. The private, listed yard, renovated in the area where the giant STX Dalian yard used to be before it went bust, is now on track to become the single largest shipyard site in the world. Giving an idea of its scale, earlier this year, Hengli became the first shipbuilder in the world to simultaneously launch four 306,000 dwt VLCCs. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1_95_0_1_2'); });