According to latest figures released by the ministry of trade and information industry, China’s shipyards saw new orders in 2015 plunged by 47.9% year-on-year to 31.26m dwt.
Among the new order tonnage, the top 10 Chinese shipyards as identified by the ministry accounted for the lion’s share at 70.6%, which is a 15.1 percentage point increase from 2014.
Furthermore, figures from China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry (Cansi) showed the country’s 54 leading yards received more than 90% of the newbuilding market share.
Industry observers estimated that there are around 300 shipyards left in China but only less than 100 have active day-to-day operations. The industry recession and severe consolidation have shut down a few thousand shipyards, mostly speculative ones, since 2010.
In completed vessel tonnage, Chinese shipyards reported 41.84m dwt in 2015, representing a 7.1% increase from the 2014 figures. Again, the top 10 Chinese yards controlled the majority of production with 53.4% of market share.
Up until 31 December 2015, Chinese shipbuilders sat on an orderbook of 123.04m dwt, down 12.3% compared to the previous year, according to the ministry’s figures.
The big shipbuilding nation China took up 38.3% of global share in completed tonnage, 34% share in new orders and 36.2% share in order backlog.
Chinese shipyards are going through a difficult period and more companies are expected to shut down, but a leaner and more competitiveness shipbuilding industry is in the making after the current phase of weeding out the bottom-rung yards.
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