China has approved the long-rumored merger of its two largest shipbuilding conglomerates, China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) and China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC).

Approval by China’s State Council was announced Friday in a statement posted to the China’s State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission website.

The combined enterprise, named China Shipbuilding Group, will have annual revenues of approximately $141.5 billion, according to Chinese media reports, a figure that would dwarf that of its South Korean rivals and rank the new group as the world’s top shipbuilder. 

CSIC was part of CSSC until it was spun off by the Chinese government in 1999. Rumors of their re-joining began circulating in March 2018, but it wasn’t until this summer that the two confirmed the merger plans.