70 years of Chinese shipbuilding industry: history, achievements and enlightenment

First, the main development course of China's shipbuilding industry in the past 70 years

Since the founding of New China in 1949, China's shipbuilding industry can be roughly divided into two stages: the development of the foundation before the reform and opening up and the revitalization and development after the reform and opening up. Among them, before the reform and opening up (1949-1978), it roughly experienced two stages: the introduction of external foundation development (1949-1960) and the initial formation of an independent ship-building and repair industrial system (1961-1978), and the shipbuilding industry realized a historical leap from scratch to existence, from external dependence to its own system. After the reform and opening up (1979-2019), the shipbuilding industry has roughly experienced three historical development stages: the release of market vitality by reform and opening up (1978-1998), the development of high speed from small to large (1999-2008), and the development of high quality from large to strong (2009-2018). From the domestic market to the international market, from a small shipbuilding country to a large shipbuilding country three major historic leaps. After 70 years of development, China's position as a major country in the world shipbuilding industry is increasingly stable, and it is embarking on a historical journey of transformation and development from a shipbuilding country to a shipbuilding power.

(1) The foundation development stage of China's shipbuilding industry before the reform and opening up (1949-1978)

After the founding of New China in 1949 and before the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee in 1978, it was the foundation development stage of China's shipbuilding industry. During this period, China's shipbuilding industry mainly provided the main equipment for naval construction, shipping transportation and Marine development, and was a strategic pillar industry related to national security and important national economy and people's livelihood. Specifically, this period can be roughly divided into two stages: the introduction of external foundation development (1949-1960) and the initial formation of an independent ship-building and repair industrial system (1961-1978).

1. The development stage of external introduction after the founding of New China (1949-1960). This period began with the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and lasted until around 1960, with the core achievement of laying the foundation of China's modern shipbuilding industry with the technical assistance of the former Soviet Union. In June 1953, the Chinese government and the former Soviet government signed a naval order agreement (referred to as the "June fourth Agreement"), through the "transfer of manufacturing" method to introduce the Soviet military ship manufacturing technology, the construction of a number of then-more advanced combat ships, which opened the modernization of China's shipbuilding industry to lay the foundation for development. In the process of "transfer manufacturing", China carried out technical transformation of shipyards such as Jiangnan, Hudong, Qiuxin, Wuhu, Wuchang and Guangzhou at that time, and built a number of key equipment factories such as Marine high and medium speed diesel engines, instruments and meters, special auxiliary engines, underwater acoustic equipment, and underwater weapons. Among these new plants, six belong to 156 national key construction projects with complete sets of technical assistance from the Soviet Union. In terms of shipbuilding technology, welding has generally replaced the traditional riveting process, the hull section and total section construction method has replaced the whole ship bulk method, the ship process has been improved, the degree of mechanization has been increased, the shipbuilding cycle has been shortened, and the shipbuilding quality has been guaranteed. By 1959, 116 military ships were basically completed, and their combat performance was equivalent to the international level of the late 1940s and early 1950s. Together with other military ships, China's shipbuilding industry produced 484 military ships in 10 years (Policy Research Office of the General Office of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, 1994). During this period, ship Science Research Institute, Shanghai Shipbuilding Industry School and Shipbuilding Institute and other ship research and design institutions and schools were established from scratch, and some universities also set up shipbuilding departments. The Soviet Union has repeatedly sent experts to guide and assist, and China has also selected nearly 100 cadres and workers to study in the Soviet Union, through the method of inviting in, going out and learning while doing, China's ship technical management cadres and workers have gradually grown up. In general, with the support of external assistance, the new China shipbuilding industry after 10 years of hard work, initially achieved the foundation development of modern shipbuilding industry.

2. The initial stage of the independent formation of the shipbuilding industry system (1961-1978). This period mainly lasted from 1961 to the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee in 1978. This is the 18 years of tortuous progress of China's shipbuilding industry, and it is also a key stage for China's shipbuilding industry to make breakthrough progress and form a complete industrial system. In 1960, the Soviet government unilaterally broke the Sino-Soviet Second naval order Agreement (referred to as the "24 Agreement"), and in 1966, China experienced the "Cultural Revolution" that lasted for ten years. In this context, China's shipbuilding industry to overcome numerous difficulties, self-reliance, hard work, not only make our country in the world with nuclear submarines and ocean range fleet of the ranks of the few countries, and basically formed a relatively complete shipbuilding industry system. During this period, China's shipbuilding industry mainly made contributions in four aspects (Policy Research Office of the General Office of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, 1994) :

(1) China's shipbuilding industry eliminated interference, worked hard, and independently developed first-generation combat ships and special ships such as nuclear-powered submarines, guided-missile destroyers and ocean-going survey ships; China became the fifth country in the world with nuclear submarines and the third country with a fleet of ocean-going range, and the overall technical level of the shipping industry was equivalent to the international level in the early 1960s. 

(2) Large-scale construction of civil ocean ships to meet the needs of the development of ocean transportation. The shipyards of Dalian, Hudong and Jiangnan have built nine new (expanded) shipyards of more than 10,000 tons, and the shipyards of Shanhaiguan, Beihai and Chengxi have built eight new (expanded) shipyards of more than 10,000 tons. These shipyards and shipyards have formed a large shipbuilding and repair base centered on Dalian, Tianjin, Shanghai and Guangzhou. According to statistics, from 1960 to 1978, China built a total of 119 domestic ships of more than 10,000 tons and 1.97 million tons, of which the largest batch construction was a 50,000-ton tanker. 

(3) By the end of the 1970s, a relatively complete ship supporting network system had been basically formed. The shipbuilding industry has more than 60 professional supporting equipment plants such as Marine power, Marine auxiliary machinery and special auxiliary machinery, precision navigation instruments, underwater sound, underwater weapons, batteries, and other departments of metallurgy, machinery, electronics, weapons, chemical, nuclear industry and Marine supporting equipment plants of relevant provinces and autonomous regions, with a total of more than 160 professional factories and more than 350 production points. 

(4) A scientific research design system with relatively complete specialties and relatively complete and advanced test methods has been preliminarily established. Most of the existing scientific research and design institutions of China's shipbuilding industry were founded and constructed during this period. For example, the China Ship Research Institute was formally established in 1961. The China Ship Scientific Research Center affiliated to the institute has advanced and fully equipped test pools, wind tunnels, water tubes, large test platforms and other test facilities, ranking first in Asia and one of the few in the world. It was a comprehensive ship engineering design research institution with complete professional support at that time. Shanghai Ship Research and Design Institute was formally established in 1964, and is still a civil ship design unit with international influence under China State Shipbuilding Corporation. In summary, during this period, China's shipbuilding industry moved forward in twists and turns, the overall technical level remained basically stable, and basically formed a relatively complete shipbuilding industry system including shipbuilding, ship repair, ship supporting and ship scientific research and education.

(2) The revitalization and development stage of China's shipbuilding industry after the reform and opening up (1979-2019)

With the reform and opening up in 1978 as the symbol, China's shipbuilding industry has entered the stage of revitalization and development. Shipbuilding industry is one of the earliest areas of China's reform and opening up, and it is also a strategic pillar industry related to national security and important national economy and people's livelihood.  In the past 40 years of reform and opening up, China's shipbuilding industry has experienced three historical development stages: reform and opening up to release market vitality (1978-1998), from small to large and high-speed development (1999-2008), and from large to strong and high-quality development (2009-2019). It has achieved three major historic leaps from planned economy to market economy, from domestic market to international market, and from small shipbuilding country to big shipbuilding country.

1. The stage of the reform and opening up of the shipbuilding industry to release market vitality (1978-1998).  Under the guidance of the strategy of "introducing foreign advanced technology and exporting into the international market", during this period, China's shipbuilding industry changed from closed to open, and the products changed from traditional military products to protect the transformation of military to civilian, military-civilian integration products, and actively introduced external advanced technologies while opening up the international market, forming an export-oriented economic development model of "export - introduction - improvement - re-export". It has opened a new era of shipbuilding industry modernization. During this period, the shipbuilding industry introduced foreign advanced technology from a high starting point, introduced advanced key production equipment, carried out large-scale technical transformation of key shipyards, and soon had the ability to build ships that met the requirements of international norms and standards, and successfully realized the export of ship products. On this basis, the shipbuilding industry continues to promote technology, standards, facilities, management, trade and other aspects of the international full integration, and on the basis of digestion and absorption of imported technology, gradually cultivate independent design and development capabilities, shipbuilding efficiency, level and quality have been greatly improved, and soon occupy a place in the international market, the international market share from small to large. Become a compelling and important force in the world shipbuilding industry. By 1994, China surpassed Germany for the first time to become the third largest shipbuilding country in the world, and the shipbuilding industry became the pillar industry of China's mechanical and electrical products export to earn foreign exchange during this period. At the same time of actively expanding the opening up, the shipbuilding industry has also carried out the reform of the production and operation management system and mechanism, and the economic development mode has been transformed from the planned economy to the market economy, and enterprises and public institutions under the guidance of government plans have gradually transformed into enterprise legal entities and market competition subjects full of market competition vitality. In addition, during this period, China's military ship construction has also made positive progress, and the development capacity of ship equipment has been significantly improved. On the basis of the completion of the development of the first generation of ships, China not only accelerated the refit and update of the original ships, but also focused on the development of the second generation of ships and weapons, successfully built the missile nuclear submarine and space ocean survey fleet, and made important breakthroughs in the export of military ships (Tan Zuojun, 2009).

2. Shipbuilding industry from small to large high speed development stage (1999-2008). This stage began with the separation of China State Shipbuilding Industry Corporation in July 1999 and the implementation of major restructuring. In 2008, China's three major indicators of shipbuilding industry (shipbuilding completion, new orders, and hand-held ship orders) surpassed Japan and ranked second in the world. In July 1999, in order to stimulate the vitality of the domestic market and introduce the market competition mechanism, China State Shipbuilding Industry Corporation implemented a major reorganization and was split into two independent enterprises, China State Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSSC) and China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSSC). During this period, the international shipbuilding market continued to be highly prosperous, and the demand for transformation and upgrading of the naval equipment market was strong, which brought a rare historical opportunity for the rapid development of the shipbuilding industry. The local shipbuilding enterprises and joint ventures represented by Jiangsu and Shandong also developed rapidly, the shipbuilding technology capacity was rapidly improved, and the scale economy and competitiveness of the shipbuilding industry were increasingly enhanced. It has gradually developed into an important shipbuilding force comparable to the two state-owned shipbuilding enterprise groups. In terms of shipbuilding capacity, local shipyards accounted for 10 of the 26 domestic shipbuilding companies capable of building more than 10,000 tons of ships during this period. From the perspective of market share, taking the data at the end of 2002 as an example, the total number of orders held by the domestic shipbuilding industry reached 13.62 million tons, of which 5.28 million tons were held by the local system of shipping enterprises, accounting for 38.8%. The fully competitive market environment has completely changed the market pattern of "shipbuilding industry Corporation is the only one, and the local system shipbuilding capacity is weak" before the mid-1990s, and the competition pattern of "three parts of the world" between the two major shipbuilding groups and local shipbuilding forces has been formed during this period. The construction of the three national key shipbuilding areas in the Yangtze River Estuary, Pearl River Estuary and Bohai Rim region has been promoted rapidly, and the development of civilian ship industry and naval equipment has achieved extraordinary development. Local private, joint venture and foreign-funded shipbuilding enterprises have competed for development, showing an unprecedented momentum of booming development (Tan Zuojun, 2009). In 2008, China successfully surpassed Japan in shipbuilding output, jumped from the world's third shipbuilding country to the world's second, entered the world's shipbuilding competition "first square", began to impact the world's first, to the goal of shipbuilding power to advance a new journey.

3. Shipbuilding industry from large to strong high quality development stage (2009-2019). This stage started from the outbreak of the international financial crisis in 2008 and has continued until now, and is still in the stage of the development of the shipbuilding industry from large to strong high-quality. Since the outbreak of the international financial crisis in 2008, the internal and external environment facing the development of the shipbuilding industry has undergone major changes, such as the slow development of the global economy, the relationship between shipping supply and demand has not improved, the prominent problem of shipbuilding overcapacity, the increasing pressure on shipbuilding cost control, the tightening of financial institutions, and the prominent risk of the Sino-US trade war. In this context, the shipbuilding industry to comprehensively deepen reform, accelerate structural adjustment, transformation and upgrading to pursue high-quality development has become an industry consensus. Relevant state departments have successively issued the "Medium and long-term Development Plan for Marine Engineering Equipment Manufacturing Industry (2011 ~ 2020)", "Marine engineering equipment Research Project Guide (2012)", "High-tech ship Research Plan 2012 annual Project Guide", "Shipbuilding Industry to accelerate structural adjustment and promote transformation and upgrading implementation plan (2013 ~ 2015)" and "on the solution. Policies and measures such as the Guiding Opinions on the Contradiction of Serious Excess Capacity "and" Standard Conditions for the Shipping Industry "actively guide the shipping industry to strengthen industry management, resolve the contradiction of excess capacity, accelerate structural adjustment, improve technical level, and promote transformation and upgrading. On the whole, the transformation and upgrading of the shipbuilding industry and the adjustment of the industrial structure in this period went smoothly, and basically overcame the adverse effects of the shipbuilding industry such as the difficulty of receiving orders, delivering ships, making profits and financing difficulties. The indicators of ship economic operation such as shipbuilding completion, new orders and hand-held orders ranked first in the international market share for a long time. The competitiveness of China's shipbuilding industry in the international market has been significantly enhanced, the position of the world's shipbuilding industry is stable, the overall scientific and technological innovation capacity of the industry has been greatly improved, and the shipbuilding industry has basically achieved healthy and sustainable development.

Two, China's shipbuilding industry 70 years of brilliant achievements

After 70 years of development, China's shipbuilding industry has established a relatively complete shipbuilding industry system on the basis of new China's poverty, realized the dream of the world's first shipbuilding country, and walked out of a road from scratch, from weak to strong, from running to leading the development of China's shipbuilding industry. At present, the overall scale and strength of China's shipbuilding industry has entered the forefront of the world, the international competitiveness of the industry has reached the world-class level, and the modern scientific and technological innovation system of the shipbuilding industry has basically taken shape. China's shipbuilding industry is currently in the best period in history, and the dream of a shipbuilding power has dawned.

(1) The scale and strength of the shipping industry has entered the forefront of the world

At the beginning of the founding of New China, the scale of ship production was very small, and most of the mainland ship factories were damaged to varying degrees, and the production was paralyzed, which could be said to be poor and empty.  By the early 1980s, China's annual shipbuilding output was only about 400,000 tons, accounting for 1% of the world's total shipbuilding output, ranking 13th in the world, and only one twentieth of the world's first shipbuilding power Japan at that time. In 1994, China's shipbuilding output jumped to the third place in the world, but the share of the world's total shipbuilding is still only about 5% (Figure 1), and Japan, South Korea accounted for more than 35% compared to the gap is very obvious. In 2006, China's ship completions reached 14.52 million deadweight tons, accounting for 19% of global ship completions (Figure 1). China's shipping enterprises received 42.51 million tons of new orders and held 68.72 million tons of orders, accounting for 24% of global orders; It has been the world's third largest shipbuilding country for 12 consecutive years, and the gap between it and the top two countries, South Korea and Japan, has narrowed significantly. In 2008, China successfully surpassed Japan in shipbuilding production, ranking second in the world in all three indicators. Among them: China's shipbuilding completed 28.81 million tons, accounting for 29.5% of the world's shipbuilding completed; New orders of 58.18 million tons, accounting for 37.7% of the world market share; More than 200 million tons of ship orders, accounting for 35.5% of the world market share. In 2010, China's three major shipbuilding indicators simultaneously ranked first in the world for the first time. Among them: China's shipbuilding completed 61.205 million DWT, accounting for 41.9% of the world's total, South Korea and Japan accounted for 31.9% and 21.5% respectively; China's new orders reached 58.459 million DWT, accounting for 48.5% of the world's total, while South Korea and Japan accounted for 38.3% and 6.1% respectively. As of the end of December 2010, China's orders held 192.915 million DWT, accounting for 40.8% of the world's total, South Korea and Japan accounted for 33.1% and 17.6% respectively. After 2011, despite the delayed impact of the international financial crisis, the absolute proportion of the three indicators of shipbuilding completion, new orders and hand-held orders in the world market share has declined year by year, but the overall proportion of the above three indicators in the world has remained at a relatively high level of more than 35% for a long time (Table 2). Shipbuilding completions, new orders and hand-held orders are the three important indicators that reflect the economic operation of the shipbuilding industry. After 70 years of development, China has been able to independently design and build most ship types. The three core indicators of China's shipbuilding industry have maintained an international leading position for more than 10 years, and the position of the world's shipbuilding power is very stable.

(2) The international competitiveness of the shipping industry has reached the world-class level

The export level of shipbuilding industry is an important index to reflect the international competitiveness of a country's shipbuilding industry. At present, China, together with South Korea and Japan, has been recognized as the three major shipbuilding industry countries in the world. When the People's Republic of China was founded, China's shipbuilding industry was mainly for military purposes, and civil vessels for coastal inland river traffic were mainly for domestic demand, and almost no shipbuilding industry products were exported. From the 1980s to 2000, China's shipbuilding industry was still mainly based on domestic demand, and the share of shipbuilding in the world's total shipbuilding was maintained below 5% for a long time, and the shipbuilding industry was still a typical inward oriented economy, and the proportion of ship exports was extremely low. In the early stage of reform and opening up, China established the shipbuilding industry development strategy of "introducing foreign advanced technology and exporting into the international market", and carried out technical transformation of key shipyards through the introduction of foreign advanced technology and key production equipment from a high starting point, and soon had the ability to build ships that meet the requirements of international norms and standards, and initially realized the export of shipbuilding products. During this period, China's shipbuilding industry in the relatively weak foundation of the case, through the "introduction" in technology, standards, facilities, management, trade and other aspects of the continuous integration with the international, and gradually cultivated the independent design and development capabilities, shipbuilding efficiency, level and quality significantly improved, product structure from conventional ship type gradually developed to a number of high-tech, high value-added ships. By 1994, China surpassed Germany for the first time to become the world's third largest shipbuilding country. In the 21st century, especially since China's accession to the WTO in 2002, the process of internationalization and marketization of China's shipbuilding industry has been further accelerated, and the shipbuilding industry has rapidly transformed from a domestic demand economy to an export economy, and its competitiveness in the international market has been further enhanced. The international market share has increased significantly. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the proportion of completed export ships in the national completed volume, the proportion of new export ship orders in the proportion of new orders, and the proportion of hand-held export ship orders in the proportion of hand-held orders have been at a high of more than 80% for a long time (Table 3), indicating that China's shipbuilding industry has become the most internationally competitive export-oriented economic industry. Since 2010, although affected by the international market downturn, China's completed export ship, new export ship orders and hand-held export ship orders three indicators in recent years have shown varying degrees of decline in China (Figure 2), but due to Japan and South Korea, the above indicators declined more, making China's ship export international competitiveness has become relatively stronger.

(3) It has basically formed a modern scientific and technological innovation system for the shipbuilding industry

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, driven by the development project of the first generation of new technology ships, China basically formed a modern shipbuilding industry system with considerable scale and strength, including scientific research, design, trial production, production, testing and maintenance. But at that time, the shipbuilding industry was mainly dominated by military ships, and the development of civil shipbuilding industry was seriously lagging behind. It can only build small and medium-sized ships along the river and coast, and has neither scientific research and test facilities nor development and design capabilities (Wang Rongsheng, 2008). After the 1960s, China established a series of shipbuilding industry research institutes such as China Ship Research Institute and Shanghai Ship Research and Design Institute, and initially established a scientific research and design system with relatively complete majors and relatively complete and advanced experimental methods. But at that time, China's shipbuilding industry scientific research was still in the stage of introduction, digestion and absorption. The construction of scientific and technological innovation system of shipbuilding industry is still in its infancy.  During this period, shipbuilding research institutes, universities and other specialized research and design institutions initially completed the digestion and absorption stage, and gradually made new breakthroughs in the large-scale, serialization and mass development of mainstream ship types, and the number of export ships independently developed and with independent intellectual property rights was increasing. At the same time, it has gradually cultivated a group of high-tech R & D personnel involved in the whole industry chain of ship construction, ship supporting, ship repair and Marine engineering special equipment manufacturing. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the scientific and technological innovation system with enterprises as the main body has gradually improved, an innovation ecology with integrated development of industry, university and research has taken shape, and the capacity for scientific and technological innovation has been greatly improved. First, ship type development and product structure optimization and upgrading are progressing rapidly, and important breakthroughs have been made in the field of high-tech ships and ocean engineering. The mainstream ship types have basically realized large-scale, serialization and mass, and more than 90% of export ships are brand ship types that are independently developed and have independent intellectual property rights. The ship manufacturing industry is developing in the direction of intelligent design, intelligent products, refined management and information integration. Second, the integration of industry, university and research in the shipbuilding industry has made new progress, and the industry development innovation ecology has been initially established. For example, China Far-reaching Ocean Engineering Equipment Technology Industry Alliance, China Marine Materials Technology Innovation Alliance and Ship offshore industry, new materials industry Alliance have been established in recent years. By the end of 2016, the total number of shipbuilding industry national enterprise technology centers has reached 27, and 5 units such as Shanghai Shipbuilding Technology Research Institute have become technical support units of national engineering laboratories. Third, independent research and development capabilities and Marine equipment supporting capabilities are improving year by year. The three mainstream ship types have been comprehensively upgraded, strategic and forward-looking product research and development has been steadily promoted, breakthroughs have been made in the research and development of a number of independent brand power equipment, conventional product optimization and innovation capabilities have been increasingly enhanced, high-tech and high value-added product development capabilities have been continuously improved, the localization rate of Marine equipment manufacturing has been further improved, and the core competitiveness of the shipbuilding industry has gradually increased.

(4) A modern high-level shipbuilding industry system has been initially established

As early as the 1960s, China has basically formed a relatively complete shipbuilding industry system for military and civilian ships, shipbuilding and repair, and the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain of mechanical and electrical, steel, chemical, shipping, Marine resources exploration and mining industries have also been preliminarily established. After the reform and opening up, China's shipbuilding industry system has been further optimized, and the main shipbuilding enterprises have gradually established a modern shipbuilding model, basically achieved large-scale and standardized shipbuilding, and the shipbuilding efficiency has been greatly improved. In the early 1980s, in order to meet the needs of the construction of export ships, China began to introduce and transform international standards and foreign advanced standards, and initially formed a ship standard system. After entering the new century, the construction of shipbuilding industry standard system has been continuously improved, and shipbuilding standardization has entered a stage of rapid development and scale expansion. China has independently formulated a large number of standards such as "Shipbuilding Industry Standard System" (2012 edition), which provides strong support for the design and construction of mainstream ship types. At present, China's backbone shipbuilding enterprises have gradually established and improved a complete production management system from production planning to production technology, to production planning and production organization, and the construction cycle and management indicators of backbone shipyards on typical ship types have approached the world's advanced level, and the gap between the shipbuilding efficiency of major shipyards and Japan and South Korea has been greatly shortened. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China's shipbuilding industry has entered a stage of deepening structural adjustment, accelerating transformation and upgrading, and achieving high-quality development. A number of major standards represented by the "China Shipbuilding Quality Standard", "Green Ship Code" and "Smart Ship Code" have been promulgated and implemented, and access standards for China's ship design, construction and repair industries have been basically established. The conversion rate of international standard has reached about 70%. After 70 years of development, the industrial chain of China's shipbuilding industry has been further improved, the shipbuilding industry standard system has been gradually established, and the industrial standard system and specification system involving the coordinated development and mutual support of shipbuilding manufacturing, ship repair, ship supporting and Marine engineering equipment industries have become increasingly mature, and a modern high-level new shipbuilding industry system has taken shape. The core competitiveness of shipping enterprises has been further enhanced.