China to launch new cable laying vessel next month, Global Marine Group commissions new vessel

Jason Ma, Data Center Dynamics
July 28, 2026

Two new vessel developments point to the continuing importance of specialist marine capacity in the subsea-cable sector. China Telecom and Chinese subsea-cable company CSCC have commissioned Tianyi Linghangzhe, described as the country’s first domestically designed and built cable-laying vessel. The multipurpose ship is intended for both installation and repair work and can carry up to 8,000 tonnes of submarine communications cable.

Separately, Keppel-owned Global Marine Group has ordered a vessel dedicated to cable repair work from Colombo Dockyard in Sri Lanka. Delivery is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2029. Global Marine operates six vessels today, alongside subsea trenching equipment, so the order represents a long-lead addition to an established maintenance fleet rather than a near-term capacity fix.

The announcements matter because cable ships are a constrained part of the industry’s operating model. Construction schedules depend on installation windows, while fault response depends on suitable vessels being available in the right region. DCD notes that there are roughly 60 cable ships in operation worldwide and that many are more than 30 years old. New-build commitments therefore offer a useful signal of how operators and owners are responding to rising construction and repair demand. The two projects also illustrate the split between installation-led investment and the dedicated repair capacity needed to protect network availability once systems are in service.

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