Chinese ship exports speed up voyages

"The product structure has been continuously optimized, and the quality of operation of the industry has been significantly improved." Since the beginning of this year, under the guidance of relevant national policies and measures, the economic operation situation of China's shipping industry has been stable and improving, and the international market share has reached a new high. Data show that in the first eight months, China's ship exports reached 20.486 billion US dollars, an increase of 25% year-on-year. Li Yajun, shipping branch of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Mechanical and Electrical Products, expects that the annual export volume of ships is expected to reach $32 billion this year, an increase of 20%.

Exports take on new characteristics

In the first eight months of this year, the number of container ships delivered for export by Chinese companies increased significantly compared with last year. Among them, 30 large and high-priced container ships with more than 6,000 boxes were exported, an increase of 131%. Exports were $3.53 billion, up 133% year on year. 81 motor container ships of 6,000 containers or less were exported, up 62% year on year; Exports were $1.82 billion, up 74.9% year on year.

In terms of export ship types, the pattern of bulk carriers, container ships and oil tankers, which have long been among the top three ships exported by China, has changed. Data show that in the first eight months, the proportion of container ships in China's total ship exports increased significantly to 26.1%, ranking first; Bulk carriers accounted for 24.9%, ranking second; Floating or submersible drilling or production platforms accounted for 18.1%, ranking third; Oil tankers accounted for 6.5%, ranking fourth.

Asia is still the largest export market for Chinese ships. Data show that from January to August, China's export value of ships to the Asian market was 11 billion US dollars, an increase of 35.4%, accounting for 53.9%; The export value of ships to the African market was 4 billion US dollars, an increase of 60%, accounting for 19.6%; The export value of ships to the Latin American market was 2.2 billion US dollars, an increase of 41.3%, accounting for 10.8%; The value of ships exported to the European market was $1.66 billion, down 38.6% year-on-year, accounting for 8.2%.

From the perspective of the Asian market, from January to August, China's export of ships to Singapore was the highest, reaching 5.56 billion US dollars, an increase of 93.8%, accounting for 27.1%, the main export ship types are floating or submersible drilling or production platforms, 150,000 tons < load capacity ≤ 300,000 tons of motor bulk carriers and light boats, fire boats and other ships not mainly sailing.

Work together at home and abroad to meet challenges

At present, the world economic growth is slowing down, the global shipping market is facing the uncertainty of stage adjustment, and China's ship export is still facing many challenges.

Under the impact of multiple changes, the overall and urgent challenges such as geopolitical conflicts, climate change, energy transformation, and supply chain restructuring have had a certain impact on China's ship exports. The supply and demand fundamentals of the container transportation market, which has a relatively large capacity in the international shipping market, have weakened, and the market freight rate is facing downward pressure. Since the second quarter of this year, the international shipping market has continued to adjust in stages, and the comprehensive freight index has decreased by 22.9% compared with the first quarter. The growth rate of the global shipping fleet was stable, with a month-on-month increase of 0.1 percentage points. In the third quarter, the demand for shipping markets in Europe and other regions was still weak, and China's ship exports faced continued pressure of growth. In addition, the shipbuilding industry has the characteristics of both technology-intensive and labor-intensive industries. At present, the contradiction between the rapid production growth of China's shipping enterprises and the shortage of labor supply is becoming increasingly prominent, which has become an important constraint for the high-quality development of the industry.

Faced with many challenges, how does China's ship export achieve a breakthrough? In this regard, Li Yajun suggested that we should first gather policy forces to enhance the level of international cooperation of large complete sets of equipment enterprises. Secondly, it is necessary to focus on high-end, intelligent and green, and promote the high-quality development of China's shipping industry. At present, the promotion of intelligent manufacturing by enterprises is an effective way to improve the quality and efficiency of ship construction, reduce costs and resource and energy consumption, and enhance the core competitiveness of Chinese shipbuilding enterprises, and is also an important means to accelerate product innovation. To this end, the government should increase the policy support for the high-end, intelligent and green aspects of the shipping industry. Finally, on the premise of actively stabilizing the traditional export market, Chinese shipping enterprises should increase their efforts to explore emerging markets, especially in RCEP, Latin America, "Belt and Road" co-construction countries and other regions with greater development potential, constantly expand the new space of China's ship export market, cultivate and strengthen the new momentum of China's ship export, and promote the steady growth of China's ship export.