China to take Aggressive Steps to Stay Competitive in Global Shipbuilding Industry

The Chinese Government is taking aggressive steps to improve its shipbuilding and exporting capabilities.
In 2015, China’s ship export totaled USD 28.0 billion, increasing 11.2% year on year while its ship import totaled USD 10.0 billion, decreasing 23.7% year on year.

Ken Research has announced its latest publication on, “Research Report On China Shipbuilding Industry, 2011-2020”, which offers a detailed insight into the Chinese Shipbuilding industry. The research report includes analysis of trends in the Chinese shipbuilding industry on the basis of historic data and forecast data. The publication includes examination of how the shipbuilding industry in China has developed, its operation status and various government initiatives. In addition, the report also presents a Porter’s Five Force Analysis of the Chinese shipbuilding industry.

The Chinese shipbuilding industry has a long history. During the 1990s, the number of ships being manufactured in China began to increase. By the time China entered the WTO in 2001, it had already become one of the world shipbuilding hubs. In 2015, 39.05 million dwt of ships were built, increasing 8.07% year on year. In addition, 31.26 dwt of new vessels was ordered, decreasing 47.86% YoY. However, competition has increased globally and the Chinese shipbuilding industry has faced the brunt of it. A testament of this fact is that by the end of 2015, only 127.37 million dwt of ships were being handled by Chinese shipbuilding enterprises, decreasing by almost 14.93%.

In the short-term, one of the biggest problem facing the Chinese shipbuilding industry is the monopoly of developed economies in terms of design and high-end equipment. On the other hand, Koreans have gained unquestioned supremacy in ocean engineering equipment manufacturing. Thus, Chinese ship manufacturers are only playing in the low-end equipment manufacturing market within the global shipbuilding industry. Here also, Singapore is giving tough competition to China. The results of Porter’s Five Force Analysis show that the Chinese ship manufacturers now need to explore more R&D and capability building options by capturing on their cost-advantage so that the high-end equipment market can be penetrated.

All these factors forced the Chinese government to take some fast steps so as to sustain its position in the market. First of all, the Chinese government has loosened the tight supply of money. The decrease in short-term interest rate, especially, led to better financing opportunities for local manufacturers in the Chinese shipbuilding industry. The China State Shipbuilding Corporation has successfully issued CNY 5 billion SCP with an annual rate of 4.65%, which has helped in the reduction of financing cost. The Export-Import Bank of China also provided China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation with CNY 9 billion working capital loan at a favorable rate, which has relieved its financing pressure and boosted its development.

Meanwhile, ship financial leasing has undergone rapid development and become a major financing channel only second to bank loan.In addition, steps have been taken to sell-off or eliminate old ships and offer better fund support to the owner of these so that they can upgrade, transform and enhance their services as per the global shipbuilding industry.

Global Shipbuilding Industry

The global shipbuilding industry constitutes of activities related to the construction, upgradation, and maintenance of ships, shipyards and shipment facilities. The global industry consists of ships made for both commercial as well as military purposes. Regional markets such as China, South Korea, Japan, Europe and other emerging markets have been analyzed.

Some of the key drivers in the global shipment industry include: