Doosan Enerbility has signed a contract with Dongfang Electric International and Dongfang Heavy Machinery — both subsidiaries of China’s Dongfang Electric Group — to supply ultra-large forgings for the steam generators of Units 5 and 6 at Laiyang Nuclear Power Plant, located in China’s Shandong Province. The agreement calls for the delivery of eight components by 2029.
Specifically, the contract covers four channel heads and four tube sheets — the most critical components inside a nuclear steam generator. Each piece measures approximately five metres in diameter and weighs up to 130 tonnes. Such dimensions demand extraordinary manufacturing capabilities: Doosan will deploy its 17,000-tonne press, one of the largest in the world, using proprietary ultra-large forging technology developed in-house. Steam generators harness the heat produced by the reactor to generate high-pressure steam, which in turn drives the electrical turbines. The channel head is the lower section through which reactor coolant flows, while the tube sheet supports thousands of heat exchange tubes. Should either component fail, the entire unit is compromised.
Laiyang Units 5 and 6 will feature the CAP1400 reactor — China’s advanced third-generation design with a capacity of 1,400 megawatts. The plant is being developed by State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC) through its local subsidiary, State Power Investment Laiyang Nuclear Energy. The site is located in Tuanwang, within the city of Laiyang in Yantai Prefecture. It is a large-scale, multi-phase project comprising six units across three construction phases. This contract follows directly from the one signed the previous year for Units 3 and 4 at the same facility, covering identical forgings.
The repeat order is no coincidence. Doosan has already proven its capabilities on a comparable project in China: the supply of heavy forgings for the steam generators at Haiyang Nuclear Power Plant — also in Shandong — which uses the AP1000 reactor. That delivery built credibility with Chinese energy planners, who have now returned to the same South Korean supplier for the new CAP1400 units. The Laiyang plant also signals a shift in China’s nuclear strategy: moving away from an exclusively coastal model toward large inland installations powered by domestically developed third-generation technology.
With this second consecutive contract, Doosan Enerbility cements its position as a key supplier in China’s nuclear supply chain. China is pushing to expand its reactor fleet while integrating international partnerships into the procurement pipeline. Doosan meets that demand with manufacturing capabilities that are difficult to replicate in the near term. The South Korean group is also concurrently producing components for small modular reactors such as X-energy’s Xe-100, reinforcing its trajectory as a supplier active across multiple technological generations simultaneously — from large conventional reactors to small modular units targeting Western markets.
