On April 14 local time, the No. 4 dry dock at the King Salman Port in Saudi Arabia, constructed by SEPCO (Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation), was successfully completed and handed over.

The dry dock is the core works of the entire shipyard project and serves as the workplace for the assembly, launching, and docking maintenance of various vessels. The No. 4 dry dock, 550 meters long, 75 meters wide, and 13.8 meters deep, with a total of 126,000 cubic meters of concrete poured, is the largest dry dock in the Middle East and one of the largest dry docks in the world. It can accommodate the construction of a 90,000-ton VLCC supertanker at maximum, and its 550-meter length allows two ships to be built simultaneously.

To ensure the construction quality and speed of the dry dock, the project team adopted a number of highly challenging technologies and processes during construction: the use of trenching machines to construct underground continuous anti-seepage walls around the dock foundation pit, and the use of Doka formwork for one-time full-height pouring of 8.65 meters for the dock wall sections. While ensuring construction quality, the project team actively adopted cost-reduction and efficiency-enhancement measures such as optimized structural design of concrete keel blocks, integral platform concrete construction, and prefabricated lifting and installation of stair floors, saving more than USD 15 million in costs.

The smooth handover of the No. 4 dry dock fully demonstrates SEPCO's first-class organizational and management capabilities, professional technical capabilities, and rigorous and conscientious work style, and has won high recognition and trust from the owner Saudi Aramco and the operator International Maritime Industries (IMI). The project department will continue to advance the remaining finishing work, ensure the completion of all construction tasks with high quality and high efficiency, and provide strong support for the high-quality fulfillment of the project.