Added advantage: Visitors stand near an under-construction Maersk oil tanker at a shipyard in Dalian. The country’s ability to offer cost-effective solutions without compromising on quality helps it to maintain a competitive edge in the global market. — AFP
SHANGHAI: Amid rising global demand, technological progress and new international environmental regulations, market watchers and shipbuilders predict that China’s shipbuilding industry will contribute significantly to the country’s foreign trade this year.
Many global shipping and energy companies, as well as automakers, have placed a large number of orders for ships like mega container vessels, liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers and vehicle carriers from Chinese shipyards in recent years.
Reflecting this demand, Chinese companies exported a total of 1,809 vessels in the first four months, marking a 19% increase year-on-year. The value of these exports reached 100.3 billion yuan, surging 108.4%, said the General Administration of Customs.
New international regulations designed to cut carbon emissions in the maritime industry are pushing shipowners to buy and invest in greener ships, said Li Yanqing, secretary-general of the Beijing-based China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry (Cansi).
Li said this shift favours Chinese shipbuilders equipped with the technology to construct such eco-friendly vessels.
Even though Chinese companies face strong competition from rivals in South Korea and Japan, the country’s ability to offer cost-effective solutions without compromising on quality can help it to maintain a competitive edge in the global market, said Zeng Ji, a professor of shipbuilding at Shanghai Maritime University.
Chinese shipyards saw the volume of new orders amount to 24.14 million dead-weight tonnes in the first quarter, up 59% year-on-year, accounting for 69.6% of the world’s total, Cansi said.
Zhou Jinglei, vice-president of Taizhou Sanfu Ship Engineering Co Ltd, a Taizhou, Jiangsu province-based private shipyard, said the company currently has orders to build 45 vessels, with production plans scheduled through to 2027.
“While maintaining our advantage in building multipurpose heavy lift vessels, we have increased our investment in technological innovation to develop high value-added ships equipped with advanced methanol and LNG dual-fuel power systems,” said Zhou.
Compared to traditional fuel-powered containerships, dual fuel-powered container vessels can further cut carbon, nitrogen oxide and sulphur emissions, he said.
He added that these ships can be flexibly deployed on major global shipping routes.
China Merchants Jinling Shipyard (Yangzhou) Dingheng Co Ltd, a subsidiary of state-owned China Merchants Group, set sail a 16,300-tonne, dual-fuel chemical tanker in late May.
Its delivery date to a Swedish client is expected in late June.
The vessel will be the tenth of its type to be delivered to the same shipowner.
Liu Qiang, head of the company’s sales unit, said this type of ship is one of the company’s pillar products. — China Daily/ANN
