A shipyard that has laid claim to be the largest in the world in terms of physical size began operation Wednesday at Changxing Island in Dalian, a coastal city in northeast China's Liaoning Province.

STX (Dalian) Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of the STX Group from the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the investor of the project, said the boatyard was now the largest in the world in terms of physical area. The firm did not reveal the cost of the yard.

Used for final assembly of big ships, the yard is 460 meters long, with a width of 135 m and a height of 14.5 m. It is able to accommodate two ships each with a dead weight tonnage of 320,000 tonnes to be built simultaneously, said the company.

The former largest shipyard in the world in terms of physical size was built by ROK-based Hanjin Heavy Industries in the Philippines. The Dalian boatyard is 1 m longer and 1 m wider than its Filipino counterpart, the STX (Dalian) Shipbuilding said.

STX Group, the fourth largest shipbuilding company in the world in terms of orders received, started to invest in Changxing Island in 2006 and has since increased its investment there to 13.4 billion yuan (US$1.96 billion).

(Xinhua News Agency July 1, 2009)