The three major indicators rank first in the world, and the shipbuilding industry continues to lead

Overall growth of the "three indicators"

Looking at the operation of the shipbuilding industry, the three major indicators of shipbuilding are global reference values.

In the first half of this year, the three major indicators of Chinese shipbuilding increased comprehensively. Looking at the completion of shipbuilding, as of the end of June, 21.13 million deadweight tons were completed, an increase of 14.2% year-on-year, accounting for 49.6% of the world's total. Looking at the number of new orders, 37.67 million DWT, an increase of 67.7%, accounting for 72.6% of the world's total. Finally, looking at the hand-held order volume, 123.77 million DWT, an increase of 20.5% year-on-year, an increase of 17.2% over the end of 2022, accounting for 53.2% of the world total. The international market share of the three indicators is the first in the world.

What does three firsts mean? "Completions reflect China's shipbuilding capabilities, hand orders reflect the safe boundaries of production, and new orders reflect our market capabilities." China Shipbuilding Industry Association secretary General Li Yanqing explained.

The strength and international influence of Chinese shipbuilding enterprises have increased significantly. Data show that in the first half of the year, the concentration of the top 10 enterprises in the country's shipbuilding completion volume was 67.9%, the concentration of the top 10 enterprises in the number of new orders was 61.3%, and the concentration of the top 10 enterprises in the number of hand-held orders was 62.0%. China has 5, 7 and 5 shipbuilders ranked among the top 10 in the world for shipbuilding completion, new orders and hand-held orders respectively. The three shipbuilding indicators of China State Shipbuilding Group Co., Ltd. rank first among shipbuilding enterprise groups in the world.

More Chinese-made ships are heading global. According to customs statistics, from January to June, China's ship exports amounted to 11.21 billion US dollars, an increase of 7.7% year-on-year. Among the export ship products, bulk carriers, oil tankers, container ships and gas carriers dominated, accounting for 61.3% of total exports. Among them, bulk carriers accounted for 26.5%, container ships accounted for 22%, oil tankers accounted for 6.8%, and gas carriers accounted for 6%.

"In the first half of the year, backbone ship enterprises seized the favorable opportunity of the market, strengthened production management and cost control, and significantly improved operation quality and economic benefits." Li Yanqing introduced that from January to June, the main business profit margin of key monitoring ship enterprises was 4.1%, reaching the best level in nearly 10 years. At the same time, the overall environmental factors of the ship market show favorable changes. The global new shipbuilding market is in strong demand, and the Clarkson new ship price composite index has maintained growth, reaching 170.9 points at the end of June, an increase of 5.6% from the beginning of the year. At the end of June, Marine 6mm and 20mm specification steel plates were 4850 yuan/ton and 4457 yuan/ton, respectively, which was about 1300 yuan/ton lower than the same period last year.

High-tech and high value-added vessels have increased significantly

From the conventional ship type to high-tech, high value-added ship type, "high-end" has become a distinctive symbol of China's shipbuilding industry. Advantageous ship type order consolidation, segmentation ship type market share increase --

Recently, a 7,000 standard car space LNG (liquefied natural gas)/fuel dual fuel PCTC (Automobile Carrier) 1 ship in China Shipbuilding International Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as "Guangzhou International") announced the start of construction. The ship is funded and built by CITIC Gold Leasing, a subsidiary of CITIC Group, with 12 layers of car decks, of which 8 are fixed decks and 4 are elevable decks, which can be used to load cars, vans, heavy trucks and other models. The 12 layers of car decks can be loaded with fuel vehicles and lithium battery vehicles. The 11th and 12th decks can also transport new energy vehicles fueled by hydrogen and natural gas.

This is one of 25 car carrier orders currently on hand. According to Wang Gengyi, deputy chief information officer of Guangzhou Ship International, these 25 orders have made Guangzhou Ship International become the shipbuilding company with the most orders for the construction of automobile transport ships in the world.

In the first half of the year, Chinese shipping companies seized the opportunity of new ship market rotation, consolidated the dominant position of mainstream ship types, and made new breakthroughs in the segmented ship type market. Seizing the favorable opportunity of the upturn of the oil tanker market, we placed 11.448 million DWT of new orders for Suez, Afra and MR Tankers, accounting for 74.6% of the global total of similar tankers. New orders for bulk carriers and container ships accounted for 88.4% and 55.6% of the global total, respectively. New orders for 43 vehicle carriers, accounting for 97.7% of the global total. New orders for all 4 93,000 cubic meter very large liquid ammonia carriers (VLAC) in the new ship market. 14 new large liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessels were commissioned, accounting for 35% of the global total, and the market share was further improved.

The transformation and upgrading results are obvious, and the proportion of "double height" ship types has increased significantly

On July 24, China's first large cruise ship "Aida Modu", built by Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co., LTD., a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Group, slowly docked at Shanghai Overseas Gaoqiao Pier and successfully completed its first sea trial mission. The large cruise ship expected to be delivered by the end of the year marks that China is about to take off the third "crown pearl" of the shipbuilding industry, and become the only country that gathers the three "pearls" of aircraft carriers, LNG carriers and large cruise ships, and China's shipbuilding industry is about to fill the gap in the field of design and construction of large cruise ships.

"Large cruise ships are different from general transport ships, and the construction requirements and supporting industry chain of cruise ships are mostly different from the previous transport ship industry chain, so the construction of large cruise ships is also a very important process to promote the construction of a new industry chain." Li Yanqing said.

Not only large cruise ships, in the first half of this year, China's construction and delivery of high-tech, high value-added vessels increased significantly. According to the China Shipbuilding Industry Association data, in the first half of the year, a total of 88 container ships were delivered in bulk, with a revised gross ton of 2.751 million, accounting for 37% of domestic shipbuilding completions, surpassing bulk carriers to rank first. Successfully delivered 11 of the world's largest 24,000 TEU container ships, accounting for 84.6% of the global market share. New breakthroughs have been made in the construction of gas carriers, with the delivery of China's first 40,000 cubic meters of medium-sized fully cooled liquefied gas carrier, the world's largest 80,000 cubic meters of shallow water channel LNG carrier, 22,000 cubic meters of very large ethylene carrier (VLEC) and a new generation of 174,000 cubic meters of LNG carrier. Offshore engineering equipment such as the world's first M350 floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO), the first "general purpose" FPSO with self-propelled capability, and the first intelligent FPSO "Offshore Oil 123" were delivered smoothly.

Build green ships and smart ships

With advanced technology at the same time, the green upgrade of the shipbuilding industry continues to make efforts.

In the only shallow draft laboratory in Wuhan University of Technology, the team of Pei Zhiyong, director of the Green Intelligent Jianghai Direct Ship and cruise yacht Research Center, is stepping up the development of a 3,000-ton class, full range of hydrogen fuel powered new energy multi-purpose ship, which is also the world's largest hydrogen fuel powered transport ship.

Pei Zhiyong introduced that a new energy ship can reduce 3 tons of carbon emissions per day, and there are about 120,000 ships in the entire Yangtze River channel, which will reduce 360,000 tons of carbon per day. This will not only promote the green and high-quality development of Hubei, but also play a leading role in the whole country.

Not only is the inland shipping system, but on the blue ocean, Chinese shipping companies are also transforming to green ship manufacturing.

On August 8, Dalian COSCO Shipping Kawasaki Shipping Co., LTD., located in Lushun Economic and Technological Development Zone, successfully delivered the second 24188TEU super large container ship (DE125 ship) this year, and named it "Oriental Felixstowe" ship. As the world's largest container ship and Dalian's major scientific and technological achievements transformation project, "Oriental Felixstowe" adopts the latest environmental protection design, integrates the latest technological achievements and intelligent means, and has the characteristics of green energy saving, large loading capacity and high intelligence, which will significantly optimize operational efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. Comply with the green, low-carbon and intelligent development trend of the shipping industry.

Recently, the largest new Panamax container ship, built by the Chinese ship Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Group Co., LTD., was also successfully delivered. This ship is not only a large size, can carry 16,520 standard containers, but also a full life cycle green ship from design to operation to dismantling and other stages meet energy conservation and environmental protection. "We have a number of high-end and green ship orders on hand until 2027." The person in charge of the company said.

A series of structural changes in high-end new ship types have brought about the improvement of the capacity of machinery, metallurgy, electronics and other related industrial chains, and the wide application of digital manufacturing and intelligent equipment has also changed the face of China's shipbuilding industry.

At the digital shipbuilding lab at China Shipbuilding Jiangnan Shipyard, a segmented integrity inspection can be carried out by wearing AR glasses. Due to the complexity of traditional 2D drawings, pipeline interference may occur in ship construction, requiring rework and modification, which usually accounts for more than 10% of the ship construction cycle in the past. With the use of 3D modeling design, shipowners and construction personnel can more intuitively understand the drawings, complete the design and construction.

China Shipbuilding Industry Association predicts that this year, China's shipbuilding completion will exceed 42 million deadweight tons, new ship orders will exceed 50 million deadweight tons, and hand-held ship orders will maintain about 120 million deadweight tons. Li Yanqing suggested that in the future, shipping enterprises need to continue to improve green design and green manufacturing capabilities, further increase the "intelligent transformation" efforts, research and propose solutions for industry decarbonization, digitalization and intelligent development, strengthen the design of forward-looking low-carbon and zero-carbon ship types, and further increase the research and development of zero/net zero emission fuel, power technology and equipment.

Leading the world, many "world firsts", achieving many "China breakthroughs"... Chinese ships will continue to brave the waves on the wider sea.