China NanGang Exclusively Supplies Steel for Second China Built Large Cruise Ship

On March 20th, coinciding with the Spring Equinox and the traditional Chinese festival of "Dragon Raising its Head" (February 2nd), my country's second domestically built large cruise ship, the "Aida Huacheng," was officially launched at Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., entering the dock construction and commissioning phase. It is expected to be officially delivered before the end of 2026. At this glorious moment for China's shipbuilding industry, Nanjing Steel, as the exclusive supplier of steel plates and structural steel, once again etched the "Nanjing Steel Made" mark on this domestically built large cruise ship. (A special report was published in the Nanjing Daily on March 21st.)

From "Pearl" to "Business Card": Nanjing Steel's Responsibility in High-End Manufacturing

Large cruise ships, along with large LNG carriers and aircraft carriers, are collectively known as the "crown jewels" of the shipbuilding industry. Following the first domestically built large cruise ship, the "Aida Modu," Nanjing Steel continued to be the exclusive supplier of steel plates and structural steel for the entire second domestically built large cruise ship, the "Aida Huacheng," representing the highest recognition of Nanjing Steel's product technology strength.

The total order for ship plates and structural steel for the "Ida Huacheng" cruise ship reached over 30,000 tons, with thin plates ranging from 4mm to 8mm accounting for more than 35%. The high center of gravity of large luxury cruise ships places extremely stringent requirements on steel plate weight, flatness, welding deformation, and dimensional accuracy. Compared to the first cruise ship, the "Ida Huacheng" is wider and longer, requiring longer, thinner plates and more customized sections. The Nanjing Iron & Steel (Nanjing Steel) production, sales, and R&D team developed a plan in advance, organizing production according to a customized delivery model. They overcame technical challenges such as high-precision tolerance control, plate shape control, and internal stress control for thin plates, providing a solid material guarantee for the cruise ship's weight center of gravity control and production node control.

Digital Transformation: From "Experience-Based Steelmaking" to "Industrial Brain"

Steelmaking is no longer based on experience or intuition. Inside the Nanjing Steel Smart Operation Center, a 42-meter-long, 6-meter-high ultra-high-definition control screen displays the entire process of iron ore from port entry to sintering, ironmaking, steelmaking, and rolling. Nanjing Iron & Steel (Nanjing Steel) is deeply integrating its over 60 years of accumulated experience in steel smelting with next-generation information technology, driven by a three-engine technology architecture of "data governance + industrial internet + artificial intelligence." In early 2024, Nanjing Steel launched a three-year special action plan, "100 Scenarios and 1000 Models for Artificial Intelligence." In June 2025, it jointly released the "Yuanye·Steel Big Model" architecture with Huawei, building a dedicated AI foundation for the steel industry. Currently, AI technology has been effectively implemented in multiple areas of Nanjing Steel: in intelligent R&D, AI4S capabilities are used to reduce R&D costs and shorten cycles; in quality control, steel mechanical property prediction models are applied to achieve real-time online performance prediction.

Service-Oriented Manufacturing: From "Selling Steel" to "Selling Solutions"

Customers not only want steel, but also the best solutions to their problems. Nanjing Steel's innovative practice of the "JIT (Just-In-Time) + C2M (Customer-to-Manufacturer)" model has been promoted at the national level multiple times. At Nanjing Iron & Steel's JIT+C2 smart factory, for customers without production drawings or requiring irregularly shaped parts, Nanjing Iron & Steel technicians bring portable 3D scanners to the site to scan steel fittings and generate 3D models. Based on these models, drawings are created, and samples are produced until the requirements are fully met.

Nanjing Iron & Steel is also at the forefront of collaborative innovation with customers. Regarding the welding performance of high-end steel, Nanjing Iron & Steel established a customer technology research institute to conduct in-depth research on the process compatibility of steel plates and welding materials, specifically write product instruction manuals, and provide extended services such as beveling, rolling, and specialized packaging. During the construction of the Baihetan Hydropower Station, Nanjing Iron & Steel established a dedicated service team to overcome technical difficulties and ensure the timely and high-quality delivery of steel plates for hydropower.

Standing at the new starting point of the "Aida·Huacheng" ship's launch, Nanjing Iron & Steel will continue to take serving national strategies as its mission, be guided by technological innovation, driven by digital transformation, and based on green upgrading, forging ahead on the path of optimizing and upgrading traditional industries, contributing "Nanjing Iron & Steel strength" to the high-quality development of China's manufacturing industry.