China shipbuilding industry in 2021 development review and future prospects

First, the development of China's shipbuilding industry in 2021

In 2021, the global economic recovery led to the recovery of the shipping market, the global maritime trade volume growth rate of more than 6% (see Figure 1), Clarkson shipping price index annual growth rate of more than 120% (see Figure 2), the container market even appeared "a box is difficult to find" rare scene. The favorable market of the shipping market is transmitted to the shipbuilding market, and a number of new shipbuilding projects suspended during the epidemic are restarted. At the same time, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS), and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) have successively introduced new green and low-carbon rules and regulations for shipping and ships. It has promoted the accelerated renewal of the old ship capacity, further stimulated the enthusiasm of shipowners for investment, and the global new ship market has "increased volume and price". Statistics from the China Shipbuilding Industry Association show that the world's new ship orders accumulated nearly 120 million deadweight tons in the year, 2.2 times that of 2020. Global monthly orders for new ships since 2020 are shown in Figure 3. The price of main ship types increased significantly, of which Capesize bulk carriers, large handybulk carriers, very large oil tankers, and 10,000 container ships increased by 30.1%, 35.4%, 29.4% and 46.9%, respectively, compared with the beginning of the year. See price changes of these typical ship types.

China's shipbuilding industry has seized the favorable opportunity of the global market recovery, overcome adverse factors such as rising steel plate prices, and the three major indicators of shipbuilding have increased significantly (see Table 1), and the market share continues to maintain the global leader (see Figure 5). It can be seen that by the end of December 2021, China's shipbuilding completed 39.01 million deadweight tons, an increase of 4.3%; Received new ship orders of 60.4 million deadweight tons, more than double that of 2020; Orders for ships were 98.43 million deadweight tons, up 36.4% year on year. The global share of shipbuilding completions, new orders received and hand-held orders was 47.6%, 51.8% and 48.3%, respectively, and the three major shipbuilding indicators all ranked first in the world. From the perspective of export ships, China completed 37.5 million deadweight tons of export ships, an increase of 9.4%, to undertake export ship orders of 57 million deadweight tons, an increase of 133.1%, and hand-held export ship orders of 85.7 million deadweight tons, an increase of 31.46%. In the country's shipbuilding completions, new orders and hand-held orders, the proportion of export ships accounted for 96.1%, 95% and 87.1% respectively.

Second, the main characteristics of the development of China's shipbuilding industry

In 2021, China's shipbuilding industry, with the support of national and local policies, seized market opportunities, continued to deepen structural adjustment, and made breakthroughs in the acceptance and delivery of high-end products, the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure, the coordinated development of the industrial chain, and the "integration of the two", achieving a good start in the "14th Five-Year Plan".

(1) Accelerate breakthroughs in high-end green products

China's shipbuilding industry has continuously made new breakthroughs in the research and development and construction of high-tech ships and offshore engineering equipment, and multi-type green power ships have achieved batch orders. Since 2021, 23,000 TEU dual-fuel powered container ships have been delivered in bulk, the first 174,000 m3 liquefied natural gas (LNG) floating storage regasasation unit (FSRU), the world's most advanced civil hospital ship, the world's largest train special transport ship and other high-end Marine products have been delivered. 210,000 tLNG power bulk carriers, dual-fuel stainless steel chemical tankers, 7,000 vehicles dual-fuel vehicle carriers, 150,000 t Suez type ammonia fuel reserve tanker, methanol power dual-fuel MR Tanker and other green power ships to achieve batch handling. New progress has been made in the development of Marine supporting products, the world's smallest cylinder diameter Marine low-speed dual-fuel engine (Otto cycle) engine, B-type cargo tank cargo enclosure system and other products have been industrialized application, and some projects have achieved batch shipment.

(2) The concentration of shipbuilding industry remains at a high level

The COVID-19 epidemic has affected and driven a round of "immunity enhancement" in China's shipbuilding industry. Many small and medium-sized shipbuilding enterprises in China have accelerated bankruptcy, reorganization and production conversion, and superior resources have been further concentrated in large backbone shipbuilding enterprises. The concentration of the domestic shipbuilding industry has remained at a high level, the capacity utilization rate has continued to increase, and the business performance of enterprises has improved. The total amount of construction completed by the top 10 enterprises accounted for nearly 80% of the country, the top 10 enterprises with new ship orders and the top 10 enterprises with hand-held ship orders accounted for more than 75% of the country's total; The Capacity Utilization monitoring index has increased for two consecutive quarters (see figure 6). From January to November 2021, 75 key monitoring ship enterprises achieved the main business income of 269.1 billion yuan, an increase of 4.2%, and the total profit of 2.16 billion yuan, an increase of 27.1%. At the same time, the major domestic shipbuilding groups in Liaoning, Shandong, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Guangxi and other places, based on the existing shipbuilding capacity, through spatial replacement and other ways to gather advantageous capacity, further build characteristic ship repair bases, and promote the high-quality development of the overall industry with local capacity improvement.