Chinese shipyards in attack

chiny24.com 6 months ago

According to data published by the British shipping advisory company Clarksons Research, from the beginning of January to the end of October, Chinese shipyards received orders for fresh units with a full volume of 37,5 million compensated gross tonnages (Compensated Gross Tonnage, CGT). This represents around 70% of all fresh orders for ships worldwide. In the same period, global order volumes increased by 32% a year, reaching 54.16 million CGT.

Chinese shipyards, followed by South Korean and Japanese, dominate the planet shipbuilding market. In fresh years, ship prices have increased significantly, reaching 50% higher than in late 2020 and approaching the 2008 records.

The Chinese government, in consequence to the dynamic situation in this market, issued (for the first time in 15 years) permits to build fresh shipyards, but only in areas previously approved for this purpose.

The improvement of the yard’s production capacity is mainly due to acquisition and consolidation. Experts from the Norwegian company Det Norske Veritas foretell that the shipbuilding marketplace will proceed to increase for at least 3 consecutive years. The current boom drives greater request for commercial ships, but besides the request to replace ageing ships that do not meet increasingly stringent environmental standards.

This year Chinese shipyards saw a peculiarly advanced increase in tankers and container ships. 2 state Chinese shipping giants:

China Cosco Shipping Corp. Ltd. (chin. 中国远洋运输股份有限公司有限公司) and
China Merchants Group Ltd. (chin. 招商局集团有限公司),

plan to get about 100 vessels, partially to replace older units with fresh ones.

In October of this year China Cosco announced the acquisition of 54 container ships and bulk carriers for nearly 30 billion RMB (about PLN 16.73 billion). In August, China Merchants ordered 10 environmentally friendly tankers for 6.6 billion RMB (about PLN 912 million). These investments are part of the plan of the Ministry of Transport (chin. 交通运输部), which aims to make the Chinese commercial fleet, make it more competitive and increase China's share of transport of "critical materials". Although China is simply a global trade leader, their fleet only serves about a 4th of shipping.

The Chinese shipbuilding manufacture had already experienced boom from 2003 to 2008. The hossy period closed the global financial crisis. As a result, the manufacture faced overcapacity. Only since 2023, this sector has re-entered the fast improvement phase. However, the number of shipyards in China fell from 462 in 2008 to 157 in early 2023. This is reflected in global trends aimed at expanding quality and efficiency alternatively than production capacity. Chinese shipbuilders are presently focusing on more advanced segments specified as LNG ships, tankers or chemical tankers.

The latest example of the attractiveness of Chinese shipyards is the contract of German shipowner Hapag-Lloyd to build 24 container ships in 2 private Chinese shipyards

China Yangzi Jiang Shipbuilding (chin. 中国扬子江船舶控股有限公司) and
JiangSu fresh HanTong Shipbuilding (chin. 江苏新汉通船舶重工有限公司).

The contract value is RMB 28.57 billion (about USD 4 billion or PLN 16.4 billion). All ships will be equipped with modern low-carbon dual-fuel engines and will be delivered to the shipowner from 2027 to 2029.

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