Shanghai: China is making big strides in the offshore building arena but for it to progress it must improve its design capabilities, a senior executive from British classification society Lloyd's Register told Seatrade Asia Online.
Hector Sewell, Vice-President Marine Business Development for China and Korea at Lloyd's Register said if Chinese yards can build up offshore designs then the yards there could catch up with others in the region notably Singapore and Korea.
'China's yards have successfully contracted FPSO and FPSO conversion work, semi submersibles, and even novel FPSO concepts, such as the SEVAN concept [cylindrical] FPSOs. But they have yet to develop a mature design capability of their own, so at present they are unable to offer the full Engineering, Procurement, Installation and Contractor solutions [EPIC] of their Korean rivals,' said Sewell.
'The key challenge for the Chinese yards is for them to respond to industry demand for holistic design services by extending their abilities to adopt and integrate this culture. EPIC-style contractors are attractive to buyers because they are convenient and they assume the risk of integrating multi-discipline designs and then construct the asset, no to mention installation and commissioning.'
Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Corp and its newly established offshore arm, DSOC; the COSCO Shipyard Group, Hantong Ship Heavy Industry, Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipyard and Yantai Raffles are all examples of yards with developing track records in China. [22/9/08]
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