China plans on building a supersized sand dredging vessel to boost its island-building capabilities, the South China Morning Post informed earlier in the week.
A dredging vessel can split the seabed using drill-like reamer equipment to develop artificial islands.
It sucks up rocks and sand, pumping these to the locations via a long pipe. Per this report, the super-dredger will be 50% more powerful than China’s existing island-building vessels.
It will boast a 10,000-kilowatt reamer, above the approximately 6,600-kilowatt power of the Tian Kun and about the Tian Jing’s 4,400 kilowatts.
Developing the new vessel is not merely a simple enlargement regarding hull size, reamer power, etc. However, a qualitative leap forward, Tian Jing and Tian Kun operator Qin Bin mentioned.
Besides building islands, the new dredging vessel is also expected to clear the navigation waterways.
