Of the 42 people on board, 12 were evacuated safely, and five were injured and hospitalised
The death toll from the foreign cargo ship fire at a shipyard in Qingdao, east China’s Shandong Province, rose to 25, local authorities said on September 10, 2026. Photo: Xinhua News
Twenty-five people died in a fire aboard a foreign cargo vessel undergoing repairs at a state-owned shipyard in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao on Thursday, state media reported.
The fire broke out at about 11:15am (0315 GMT) at the Qingdao Beihai shipyard during repair and inspection works, state-run Xinhua said. Of the 42 people onboard, 12 were evacuated safely, and five were injured and hospitalised.
The blaze was extinguished by early afternoon, state media said.
A picture of the scene released by Xinhua showed the vessel involved to be the Ocean Melody.
LSEG ship-tracking data identified it as a 20-year-old Liberia-flagged dry bulk carrier managed by Yuyangkunpeng Shanghai Shp Mgm, with Huili Shipping Co Ltd listed as its registered owner.
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The vessel arrived at the Qingdao shipyard on August 31 and has remained there since, LSEG data showed.
Chinese President Xi Jinping had called for intensified search and rescue efforts, a swift investigation and accountability measures, Xinhua reported.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged resolute efforts to prevent major accidents after a foreign cargo ship caught fire in east China’s Shandong Province. The cargo ship caught fire on Thursday morning while undergoing repairs at a port in the city of Qingdao, Shandong, causing… pic.twitter.com/6xn4fi7dpN
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) September 10, 2026
The shipyard is controlled by state-owned China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), one of the world’s largest shipbuilders.
CSSC describes itself as China’s principal naval shipbuilder and the country’s largest designer and builder of ships and offshore equipment.
A 2022 recruitment notice on the CSSC-owned Qingdao unit’s website said the shipyard had an annual shipbuilding capacity of three million deadweight tonnes and could repair 212 vessels a year.
