Afai Southern Shipyard's ferries offer gold standard service at Rio Olympics

Zhang Yongmin, manager of the executive department of Afai Southern Shipyard (Panyu Guangzhou) Ltd, is proud and excited these days.

This is not only because of the plenteous gold medals Chinese athletes have won during the ongoing 2016 Rio Olympics, but also because of the three passenger ferries that are operating in Rio's Guanabara Bay, transporting audiences and tourists among the competition arenas.

"The ferries produced by our company have been well-received by Brazilian authorities, the Olympics committee and passengers, indicating that the quality of our ferries has been accepted by the world market," Zhang told China Daily.

The company signed a contract valued at $110 million in 2013 to produce for Brazil seven catamaran passenger ferries - beating 22 shipyards from around the world in public bidding.

In addition to the three ferries that have been delivered to Brazil, production of another one has now basically been completed and is expected to be delivered to Brazil in a month, while the remaining three will be completed and delivered to the South American country in a year, Zhang said.

Each ferry, with a displacement of 665.6 tons, has a capacity of 2,000 passengers. The ferry is 78.4 meters long and 14.4 meters wide, and weighs 413 tons.

"The contract from Brazil is a big deal for the shipyard and will help the company expand in the world market," Zhang said.

Zhang's company has also won contracts from Singapore, South Korea and the Netherlands, after signing the contract with Brazil.

Zhang attributed his company's expansion in the world market to the high quality and good design of its products.

Xie Xintian contributed to this story.

zhengcaixiong@chinadaily.com.cn