Workers from Yantai CIMC Raffles Ocean Technology Group maintain a ship in Yantai, Shandong province,
in February.
[TANG KE/FOR CHINA DAILY]
Multiple teams tasked with simultaneously constructing 14 ships, each with different functions, are busy at work at the docks owned by Jiangsu Yangzi Xinfu Shipbuilding Co Ltd, a shipyard based in Taizhou, East China's Jiangsu province.
The company receives large shipments of various commodities and industrial equipment on a daily basis, including marine steel, fasteners, electronic components, and aluminum alloy.
However, most of the oil and chemical tankers, dual fuel-powered container ships and ore carriers built in the shipyards will not be delivered to domestic shipping and energy companies.
Instead, they will go to shipowners in Norway, Greece, Denmark, and Singapore, who have placed orders with the shipyard's parent company — Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Group, a Jingjiang, Jiangsu province-based firm — over the past two years.
"About 77 percent of our orders are LNG (liquefied natural gas)-powered container ships, dual fuel-powered vessels, and diesel-electric propulsion ships, with orders on hand already scheduled through 2027 and the latest delivery extending into 2028," said Liu Yinjun, assistant president of Jiangsu Yangzi Xinfu Shipbuilding.
At the company's training center, workers are receiving training in welding and bonding operations, to enhance their technical readiness for the construction of two 175,000-cubic-meter LNG carriers. These advanced vessels are top-tier assets in the global shipbuilding industry, historically dominated by South Korean shipbuilders, and often referred to as the pinnacles of excellence.
Highlighting that Chinese shipbuilders have continuously overcome technical challenges and secured international orders, Liu said only five companies in China are capable of building LNG carriers, and his firm is the only privately owned shipbuilding company among them.
Thanks to China's complete manufacturing clusters, strong upstream and downstream industries, as well as continued investment and resource allocation in the shipbuilding sector, the country's shipbuilding output reached 42.32 million deadweight tons in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 11.8 percent, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed. The output accounted for 50.2 percent of the global total.
With improved global competitiveness, Chinese shipyards saw new orders surge 56.4 percent year-on-year to 71.2 million dwt last year, accounting for 66.6 percent of the global total.
Li Yanqing, secretary-general of the Beijing-based China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry (CANSI), said the country achieved a leading position in the global shipbuilding market by securing new orders for 14 out of 18 major ship types in 2023.
With the second large cruise ship being built locally at China State Shipbuilding Corp's Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co Ltd in Shanghai, and a large number of vessels being assembled in the Yangtze and Pearl River Delta regions, the next two years will be a peak period for Chinese shipbuilding firms, marked by the delivery of various vessels, notably high-tech ones such as large LNG carriers and mega container ships, said Zeng Ji, a professor of shipbuilding at Shanghai Maritime University.
In addition to holding orders to build 13 LNG carriers for different shipowners, including eight ordered by China Merchants Energy Shipping Co Ltd, Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co Ltd said earlier this year that it had sealed a number of new ship deals, with the total order value amounting to around 15 billion yuan ($2.08 billion). Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co Ltd is a subsidiary of State-owned CSSC, and is based in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning province.
China's shipbuilding completion volume is expected to be around 45 million dwt, with new orders of around 55 million dwt this year, and orders on hand above 130 million dwt, according to CANSI.
China's shipbuilding industry is increasingly embracing self-sufficiency, especially within its industrial and supply networks. This shift toward domestic production has significantly reduced both the time and cost associated with various projects, said Pan Helin, a researcher at Zhejiang University's International Business School in Haining, East China's Zhejiang province.
In the competitive market, the ability to deliver ships more quickly often results in more orders from shipowners, said Pan, adding that by sourcing materials locally, Chinese shipyards have not only fostered the expansion of their own industrial ecosystem, but have also seen an uptick in profitability. This strategy will continue to yield benefits for both shipyards and their international clients.
Boosted by these factors, shipyards in Jiangsu province exported 65.53 billion yuan worth of ships of various types in 2023. These included heavy-duty dredgers, wind turbine installation vessels, and car carriers, marking a year-on-year increase of 37.1 percent and ranking first on the export scale nationwide, statistics from Nanjing Customs showed.
According to a report released by Liaoning province-based Dalian Maritime University, the shipbuilding industry is characterized by its complexity, extensive supply chain, and strong industrial connections, encompassing more than 50 diverse industries such as steel, nonferrous metals, machinery, and electronics.
Source: China Daily
