Bigger ships to drive Yangtze growth

Larger, more efficient river-going cargo ships are being built to support China's plan to develop the Yangtze River Economic Belt into a new growth engine for the country.

At Zhejiang Zengzhou Ship Building Co, Li Dan and his workers have been busy for over eight months building a ship that carries twice as much cargo as most of the ships plying the Yangtze River, the country's longest and the world's third-longest river.

"The ship, with a designed loading capacity of 20,000 metric tons, will be handed over to the customer in two more months for transporting iron ore," said Li, deputy general manager of Zhejiang province shipyard.