China's first domestically built large cruise ship Adora Magic City. Photo: Courtesy of Carnival Cruise Shipping Limited

China's first domestically built large cruise ship Adora Magic City left the dock in Shanghai on Tuesday, marking a new milestone for the nation's rapidly progressing shipbuilding industry.

Built by Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co (SWS) under the China State Shipbuilding Corp (CSSC), the cruise ship is the world's most complex single electromechanical vessel with more than 25 million parts, five times the number of individual parts used in China's first domestic aircraft, the C919, and 13 times the number used in the Fuxing bullet train series.

Experts said the Adora Magic City marks a major step in the development of China's advanced manufacturing sector and is proof of China's strength in self-innovation. The collaboration needed to complete such a vessel shows China's determination to open further to the world -- different from the US which has tried to sever global supply chains by grouping its allies, they noted.

After a floating process that lasted for six days, the departure marked the basic completion of the main body of the giant ship. The ship will now berth at an SWS wharf, where final testing and internal decoration work will be done. 

The ship is 323.6 meters long, weighing 135,500 tons, which has 2,125 guest rooms and can accommodate 5,246 people, according to CSSC Carnival Cruise Shipping, which owns the ship.

The ship is set to be delivered by end-2023 after two sea trials. Commercial operation is set to begin in 2024.

The delivery of the Adora Magic City is a breakthrough in China's shipbuilding industry and fills a gap in the sector, experts said.

Large cruise ships are among the "crown jewels" of the global shipbuilding industry, along with aircraft carriers and large LNG carriers. This was the last "jewel" that had not been claimed by Chinese shipbuilders.
 
"For 17 years, we have waited for this moment," Zheng Weihang, secretary general of the China Cruise and Yacht Industry Association (CCYIA), who attended the ceremony, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"Building large cruise ships is a tremendous breakthrough in China's shipbuilding industry and a demonstration of the country's high-end equipment construction capabilities and comprehensive scientific and technological levels," Chen Ranfeng, managing director of CSSC Carnival Cruise Shipping, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"This is a culminating moment that summarizes years of hard-run chases after leading manufacturers in Europe," Wu Minghua, a veteran Chinese shipping analyst, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The Adora Magic City is as tall as a 24-floor building. The accommodation and leisure area covers a total of 14 decks and has more than 40,000 square meters of public areas. It will hold China's largest duty-free retail space at sea and is the world's first 5G-enabled cruise ship.

The ship will sail to Japan and Southeast Asia from Shanghai, and will serve in medium and long routes along the Maritime Silk Road.

After the ship is delivered, China will become the fifth country able to build large cruise ships after Germany, France, Italy and Finland. Compared with leading cruise ship builders such as Germany and Italy, China is still "a pupil," Zheng said.

The new ship will need four to five years of operation at sea to test technology, compatibility and maneuverability, Wu said.
 
"As China's cruise ship industry recovers from the pandemic, the addition of a domestically built giant cruise ship will promote the sector's growth, and home-grown fleets and international cruise fleets will grow together and evolve on differentiated paths to cater to varying segments of consumer demand," Zheng said.

According to a report by the CCYIA and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, the cruise ship industry could contribute 550 billion yuan ($77.5 billion) in economic output to the Chinese economy by 2035. About 15 percent of the sum would be created by the building of new ships and associated repair work.

Under its push toward self-reliance in technology, China has achieved breakthroughs in high-end manufacturing industry since 2022, most notably in the C919 passenger plane, which completed its first commercial flight in late May. 

CSSC also built the world's largest container vessel in 2022 with a capacity of 24,000 standard containers. 

Shanghai is being built into China's global cruise touring hub. As the Chinese economy recovers post-pandemic, global cruise operators have announced plans to resume business.