The company was founded in 2003 after the founder Liang Xiolei acquired the Zhejiang Shipyard in Ningbo and defunct Jiangyang Shipyard in Yangzhou. The shipbuilding business thrived in the 2000s with the company becoming among the 50 largest shipbuilders in the world by book orders in 2007.[3] However, it would struggle in the next decade with the company failing to repay a loan in December 2015, defaulting on a 400 million RMB bond in 2016, and two of its shipyards entering bankruptcy in 2016.[4]