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China outlines path to shipbuilding supremacy

China outlines path to shipbuilding supremacy

Tianjin: China plans to increase its shipbuilding capacity to reach 23 million tons in 2010 and 28 million tons in 2015 while forming a number of large-scale shipyards along its east and south coastline, a State Development and Reform Commission (SDRC) official said at a recent international shipping conference. Speaking at the International Shipping (China) Conference 2007 held in Tianjin last week, Zhang Guobao, Deputy Director of the SDRC said that China has blueprinted a mid to long-term development plan for its shipbuilding industry, which targets shipbuilding capacity of 28 million ton/year by 2015 and building a number of large scale shipyards including Shanghai Changxing, Qingdao Haixiwan, Guangzhou Longxue and Dalian. Statistics show that China's shipbuilding deadweight tonnage (DWT) reached 14.52 million tons in 2006, accounting for 19 per cent of the world total. At the end of 2006 China was holding orders of some 68.72 million DWT, up 550 per cent over the year 2000. In the first half of 2007 China received 42.62 million DWT of new orders, up 165 per cent year-on-year and accounting for 42 per cent of the world total for the period. In the meantime, China's shipbuilding product configuration is being optimized, with the portion of oil tanker and container ship orders in the world total surging from less than 10 per cent to 30 per cent and 21 per cent respectively. In addition, China has entered the high-end markets for large-scale LNG carriers, large container ships and 300,000-DWT Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessels. China's shipbuilding industry raked in a total profit of 9.6 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion) last year, a growth of 151 per cent over 2005. [07/11/07]