Monday, March 3, 2008

China on Way to Become the Shipyard of the World

by Richard York

Shipbuilding in China is fast growing up with orders for new ships coming from all over the world and from major companies like Maersk, Gear Bulk, Stena AB and many others. The dry-dock of a shipyard in Dalian city of China which is in the northeast region of the country is abuzz with shipbuilding activity. An oil tanker with a capacity of 300,000-tonne stands ready as per the order of Maersk the Danish shipping company. The trademark blue hull of the new oil tanker stands erect.

There also stands an offshore drilling platform which was ordered by a US company Noble and it is also ready to be delivered to the company having all the specifications the company wanted in their platform from the Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co. Both of these orders which the Dalian Shipbuilding Industry had constructed as per the precise details of their clients are evidence enough that China is fast becoming the hub of shipbuilding in the world. Seeing the progress China is making in shipbuilding it can fast become the number one nation in the world in shipbuilding by the year 2015. The assistant general manager of Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co., Li Cheng, expressed that in the last year the orders the Chinese shipyard received overtook the orders Japan had and it stood second to South Korea in its orders for shipbuilding. The Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company is the world’s eighth biggest shipyard and in the year 2007 it was able to deliver as many as 82 vessels which were about three million deadweight tonnes.

China in fact stood at the number one position, last when it comes to new orders which were about 98.5 million deadweight tonnes. As per the Beijing government China grabbed as much as 41% share in the world in its shipbuilding orders last year. The assistant general manger of the Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co. further said that the rapid growth of the local economy gave a boost to the Chinese shipyards and the rapid economic growth added to the demands for container vessels and other container ships. The assistant manager further added that China is very likely to surpass even South Korea in its shipbuilding business if the current trend continues like what is now. There is also strong evidence that this trend will continue as it is for the Chinese shipbuilding industry. The Dalian shipyard situated in the Gulf of Bohai has its order books overflowing till the year 2011.

Robust and stable growth in imports and exports due to the growing Chinese economy is not the only reason why the Chinese shipbuilding industry is taking great strides. The global boom in shipping is an equally important reason why the Chinese shipbuilding industry is enjoying great success with orders from everywhere. As per the research institute Clarkson, the global share of China in the industry has increased from 18% in 2006 to 23% in 2007. Against this growth of China the share of Japan and South Korea in the global shipbuilding market stands at 35% each.

 

 

 

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