China's Shipbuilding firms Join World Stage

China'a shipbuilding industry is reporting good times and promises of more to come. As its domestic shipping industry develops and the cost of ship construction rises, Chinese shipbuilding enterprises are entering into what they call their “golden period”. Last week Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Company disclosed that it had received more than eight million deadweight ton orders and that a production plan through the year 2010 had been formalized.

As the international shipping market has recovered since the beginning of 2003, the world’s larger ship operating companies have again begun to order new tonnage, the world’s shipbuilding market has also made record progress in 2005. Already the world’s third largest ship builder, China does lag behind in the construction of LNG ships, super large container ships and ocean engineering floating oil tankers. The LNG market, in particular, is red hot and promises to remain that way if a good percentage of the 40+ proposed LNG terminals come on line in the United States over the next ten years.

According to the China State Shipbuilding Corporation, China will overtake Japan and Republic of Korea in 2015 to become the world’s largest ship builder. To achieve this goal, China will have to adjust their product formula to increase the number of high value- added ships to their backorder log.