New Century, based in Jinjiang in southeastern China, may sell a 30% stake in the IPO, said the people, who declined to be identified because they aren’t authorized to discuss the deal publicly.

The sale would be the third in Singapore by a Chinese shipbuilder, and almost 60% larger than Jiangsu-based Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (Holdings)’s IPO in 2007. New Century scrapped plans to go public in Singapore in August 2008 as the credit crisis triggered a global economic slump.

China is boosting production at its yards to overtake South Korea as the world’s biggest shipbuilding country by 2015. Gross shipbuilding tonnage, an industry measure of capacity, totalled 9.18 million tonnes in the first two months of the year in China. That gave the country a market share of 46.1%. Its new orders at the end of February were 5.72 million tonnes, accounting for 51.9% of the global market.

UBS AG and Morgan Stanley are arranging the sale, with UBS acting as global coordinator, said the people. Rachel Lin, a spokeswoman at UBS in Singapore, and Morgan Stanley’s Hong Kong-based spokeswoman Noel Cheung declined to comment. Officials at New Century Shipbuilding couldn’t immediately be reached.

The company and sale arrangers plan a 10-day global tour to promote the IPO at the end of April, said the people. The shares will be priced in the first half of May and begin trading on the Singapore Stock Exchange in the middle of the month, they said.