The deep-seated problems existing in China's shipbuilding industry at present

After 70 years of hard development, on the one hand, China's shipbuilding industry has made brilliant achievements, on the other hand, it has accumulated many deep-seated problems, it is necessary to objectively examine the main difficulties and challenges facing China's shipbuilding industry. At present, facing the continuous downturn of the world shipping market and severe international competition situation, China's shipbuilding industry in the external market environment, industry living space, internal management, science and technology system and mechanism, there are many deep-seated contradictions to be solved, the shipbuilding industry to achieve a big and strong historical leap-forward situation is complicated and severe.

(1) Effective demand in the external market has been in a downturn for a long time

Since the outbreak of the international financial crisis in 2008, the external market environment of China's shipbuilding industry has been depressed for a long time, and the problems of receiving orders, shipping difficulties, financing difficulties and survival difficulties have existed for a long time, and it is still in the deep adjustment period of "L" type economy. Affected by the international financial crisis, the European debt crisis, the slowing domestic economic growth, the Sino-US "trade war" and the implementation of new regulations on ship environmental protection and many other international and domestic factors, the external market environment of China's shipbuilding industry has been relatively bad. On the one hand, the world economic recovery has slowed down, international trade protectionism has returned, the contradiction between supply and demand in the shipping market has not been fundamentally resolved, and ship orders have gradually decreased. On the other hand, the collapse of international oil prices has reduced the enthusiasm of shipowners to order energy-saving ships, delayed the dismantling of old ships, and increased ship speed to release shipping capacity, reducing the demand for new ships. In particular, under the background of the increasingly fierce Sino-US "trade war", the global economic growth has slowed down, the shipping market has continued to be depressed, and the effective demand of China's shipbuilding industry market has been insufficient. Affected by the continued downturn in the international market and the bankruptcy and reorganization of some enterprises and other factors, financial institutions have relatively tight credit policies for the shipbuilding industry, and the implementation of differentiated credit policies is not obvious, "difficult financing, expensive financing" is still a prominent problem facing the shipbuilding industry, and the financing pressure of enterprises is relatively large, which seriously affects the healthy development of China's shipbuilding industry.

(2) The internal transformation and upgrading of the industry has many tasks and heavy burdens

From the perspective of supply, the contradiction of excess capacity in China's shipbuilding industry has not been fundamentally alleviated, and the internal transformation and upgrading of the shipbuilding industry has many tasks and heavy burdens. Although shipping enterprises have effectively alleviated the adverse impact of excess capacity of ships through various measures such as mergers and reorganizations, the capacity utilization rate of China's shipping industry is still at a low level in the face of a sluggish market, and there is still a large gap from the reasonable level of capacity utilization of the industry as a whole (Institute of Industrial Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 2018). At the same time, due to the continuous decline in the price of new ships, the sharp rise in raw material costs, the frequent change of shipowners' orders, the lack of construction of shipping enterprises, high financing costs and other factors, coupled with the rigid rise of labor costs, financial costs and logistics costs in recent years, the operation of shipping enterprises has brought great pressure, and the profitability of the shipping industry has declined significantly, and the overall economic benefits of the industry are not good. The stable and healthy development of the industry faces great challenges (China Shipbuilding Industry Association, 2019). Under the combined effect of the market forcing mechanism and policy guidance, China's shipbuilding industry excess capacity still needs to be further reduced, mergers and acquisitions need to be accelerated, and industrial concentration can be further improved.

(3) The system and mechanism of collaborative innovation need to be further optimized

At present, the innovation ecology and innovation system of China's shipbuilding industry need to be further optimized, the system mechanism to encourage continuous innovation needs to be further improved, and the overall level of innovation is still a big gap compared with the world's shipbuilding powers (Li Yizhong, 2016). Ship enterprises are generally faced with many problems, such as poor innovation ability, low added value of product science and technology, weak independent design ability of high-end products, high dependence on external design support, and serious separation of scientific and technological innovation from industrial demand. With the increasingly fierce competition in the international ship market, developed countries and regions such as Japan, South Korea and the European Union have strengthened their technological blockade on China, and the importance of establishing an independent system and mechanism to encourage the continuous innovation of ship enterprises has become increasingly prominent (Wu Xiuxia, 2017). From the perspective of innovation, the understanding of innovation leading the real economy in China's shipbuilding industry is not yet in place, the understanding of the connotation of innovation is too narrow, more attention and emphasis on technological innovation, while ignoring the business model, enterprise system, organization mode, operation mode, production mode, salary incentive, management methods and other aspects of innovation, collaborative innovation ability is obviously insufficient. It is necessary to establish and improve the system and mechanism to encourage the continuous innovation of shipping enterprises, give full play to the overall leading role of innovation in the transformation and upgrading of the shipping industry, strengthen the upstream and downstream of the shipping industry chain, deepen the "industry-university-research and application" cooperation, build an interconnected and global collaborative innovation network, and enhance the collaborative innovation capacity of the shipping industry.

(4) The level of refinement of internal management needs to be improved

With the increasingly fierce international competition, the internal management level of shipbuilding industry needs to be improved. Since the international financial crisis, the economic benefits of China's shipping enterprises have declined significantly year-on-year. In addition to the impact of external environment, facing the changes in market competition, the internal management ability of shipping enterprises is also the main reason for the decline in profits. Although the backbone enterprises have achieved good results in cost reduction and efficiency improvement, some enterprises are still difficult to effectively reduce research and development, manufacturing and labor costs; It is difficult to strictly implement the production plan and improve management efficiency; It is difficult to improve product quality from design, process, procurement and other aspects to reduce internal and external quality risks; The lack of financial risk control ability of some shipping enterprises has led to a serious problem of total capital gap, high financing costs, significant increase in advance funds, and increasingly tight cash flow. In the current fierce market competition, the structural adjustment and transformation and upgrading of the shipbuilding industry has become the consensus of the industry, and the internal fine management level of the shipbuilding enterprise needs to be rapidly improved.

Four, China's shipbuilding industry 70 years of development experience and inspiration

Reviewing the development process and brilliant achievements of China's shipbuilding industry in the past 70 years since the founding of New China from scratch, from small to large, from weak to strong, it is necessary to stand at a new historical starting point and objectively and systematically summarize the basic development experience of the shipbuilding industry in the past 70 years, in order to provide reference and lay the foundation for the high-quality development of the shipbuilding industry from large to strong.

(1) Must conform to the objective laws of industrial development

The objective law of the gradient transfer of the world shipbuilding industry shows that with the development of international trade and the world economy, the world shipbuilding center has experienced many historical processes from the first industrial countries to the later industrial countries. Before the 1950s, the world shipbuilding center was in Europe; With the rise of the Japanese shipbuilding industry in the 1950s and the gradual rise of the Korean shipbuilding industry in the 1970s, East Asia became the world shipbuilding center. The transfer and alternation of the world shipbuilding kingdom also showed a law of doubling and decreasing cycles: Britain occupied the world shipbuilding supremacy for about 100 years; Japan has maintained the status of the world's shipbuilding power for nearly 50 years, and the cycle has been shortened by half; South Korea has been a shipbuilding power in the world for about 25 years, and the period has been shortened by half (Yin Qing et al., 2018). Since the founding of New China 70 years ago, China's shipbuilding industry from closed to open, seized the world shipbuilding industry gradient transfer of the historical opportunity, thus established China's current world shipbuilding power historical status. At present, the competitive pattern of the world shipbuilding industry generally shows a three-pillar, Europe gradually declining trend, compared with Japan and South Korea and other countries shipbuilding industry, China's domestic market demand potential is huge, with "although not guaranteed to win, but certainly will not lose" confidence. As long as we comply with the objective laws of the development of the world shipbuilding industry, maintain strategic focus and development patience, adhere to the correct development direction of the shipbuilding industry, and actively respond to the inevitable stage problems and challenges in the development and growth of China's shipbuilding industry, China's shipbuilding industry will be able to achieve high-quality development to complete the historical leap of "big to strong".

(2) We must pursue high-quality development with innovation as the first driving force

The 70 years of development of the shipbuilding industry shows that scientific and technological innovation is a long-term strategic task, and it is not just a temporary move to deal with crisis or the pressure of survival. The whole industry must realize that only through continuous innovation, China's shipbuilding industry can achieve long-term development in the fierce international competition. The development direction of the shipbuilding industry must be changed from the extensive development that mainly relies on the input of production factors and relies on low labor costs to the intensive development mode driven by technological innovation, focusing on quality and brand, efficiency and benefit. Only by establishing a long-term innovation-driven mechanism, enhancing the independent innovation ability of the shipbuilding industry, and improving the management level and production efficiency, can the high-quality development of the shipbuilding industry be achieved. Ship enterprises should actively play the core role of innovation, strengthen scientific and technological innovation, management innovation, business model innovation, the government should play the role of policy support and guidance and promotion, and jointly explore new roads and new models suitable for the revitalization of China's ship industry. We should further improve the innovation research and development system and mechanism, and promote industrial restructuring and transformation of development mode through independent innovation. We will further strengthen research on basic generic technologies and cutting-edge technologies, strengthen the foundation for innovation, enhance technology reserves, and build original innovation capabilities. Make use of domestic engineering technology research centers, engineering laboratories and other innovation platforms to improve the industrial technology innovation system; Use the public service platform to enhance the research and development ability of industrial basic common technology, and improve the industrial technology basic system; Vigorously carry out research and development of new technologies in energy saving, emission reduction, low-carbon and environmental protection, and develop environmentally friendly green ships to lead the market demand; Implement major innovation projects, realize the combination of production, university, research and application, and solve technical problems in related fields.

3. We must continue to enhance competitiveness and market vitality through opening-up

Shipbuilding industry is one of the earliest open fields in China, and it is also a comprehensive industry category with full competition and international integration. In the past 70 years since the founding of New China, especially in the past 40 years of reform and opening up, it is precisely because China's shipbuilding industry has actively integrated into the global industrial division of labor chain and value chain, continuously deepened opening up to the outside world, actively carried out international cooperation, and deeply integrated into the global market, which has prompted the shipbuilding industry to continue to develop and grow in international competition, and its comprehensive strength has been significantly enhanced, thus growing into the world's most important shipbuilding country. From the perspective of the development of China's shipbuilding industry opening to the outside world, the strategies of opening to the outside world in different development stages are not the same. From 1978 to the end of the 20th century, China established an export-oriented open development road, opening up to the outside world to "introduce", focusing on strengthening the introduction of technology, standards, etc., the shipbuilding industry went abroad to achieve product exports, and in the fierce international market competition continues to develop and grow, out of a "export - introduction - improvement - re-export" successful road. After 2002, before the outbreak of the international financial crisis, China duly adjusted the foreign access policy, continued to expand development and actively attract foreign investment, and encouraged foreign investment in ship design, repair and construction, and design and construction of supporting products. After the outbreak of the international financial crisis in 2008, according to the changes in the development environment and market position of the shipbuilding industry, China has adopted a phased policy of "taking and releasing" in the field of high-end ship types, ship supporting and conventional ships. The documents of the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee and a number of documents issued by the State on the shipbuilding industry also point out the development direction of "going out" for the shipbuilding industry from the perspective of foreign investment cooperation, cultivating international first-class groups, obtaining advanced technologies and brands, and optimizing industrial layout. In July 2018, the new "Special Management Measures for Foreign Investment Access (Negative List) (2018 edition)" eliminated the requirement that the design, manufacturing and repair of ships (including sections) should be controlled by the Chinese side, which means that the shipbuilding industry has achieved full opening-up. Adhering to the development strategy of "bringing in" and "going out", giving full play to the vitality of both international and domestic markets, and encouraging enterprises to strengthen their strength in participating in international competition is the beneficial experience of 70 years of development of China's shipbuilding industry.

(4) We must pay attention to the promotion and guidance role of industrial policies

It can be seen from the 70-year development history of China's shipbuilding industry that the rapid development and growth of the shipbuilding industry cannot be separated from the effective promotion and active guidance of the national industrial policy. Before the reform and opening up, the impact of the shipbuilding industry policy is mainly manifested in the importance and concern of the Party and state leaders to the shipbuilding industry, as well as the implementation of the backbone shipbuilding enterprises and institutions. During this period, the shipbuilding industry policy was often the Party and state leaders or personally visited the shipbuilding industry enterprises and institutions, or listened to the report, and made important instructions or specific instructions for the shipbuilding industry; According to the instructions and instructions of the Party and state leaders, the shipping industry actively implements it, and then promotes the healthy and sustainable development of the shipping industry. Reform and opening up, especially after entering the new century, China has successively promulgated the "Medium and Long-term Development Plan for the Shipbuilding Industry (2006-2015)", "Eleventh Five-Year Plan for the Development of Shipbuilding Industry Science and Technology", "Shipbuilding Industry Adjustment and Revitalization Plan", "Shipbuilding Industry Deepening Structural Adjustment and Accelerating Transformation and Upgrading Action Plan (2016-2020)" and other special plans related to the shipbuilding industry. To guide the ship industry along the right path of healthy and sustainable development. The State promulgated and implemented the "Made in China 2025", "Guiding Opinions on Promoting International Cooperation in Production Capacity and Equipment Manufacturing", "Guiding Opinions on Financial Support for the shipbuilding Industry to Accelerate structural adjustment and Promote transformation and upgrading", "Notice on the pilot work of the first (set) insurance compensation mechanism for major technical equipment", and "on the implementation of major engineering packages to enhance the core competitiveness of the manufacturing industry" A series of policies and measures such as "Zhi" are also conducive to supporting the healthy and sustainable development of the shipbuilding industry. Policy documents such as "Several Opinions on Promoting the Reform and Development of Tourism", "Several Opinions on Promoting the healthy Development of the maritime industry" and "Strategic Action Plan for Energy Development (2014-2020)" also constitute major policy benefits for China's shipping industry. It can be seen that the healthy and sustainable development of the shipbuilding industry cannot be separated from the strong support of the Party and the government. Industrial policy, as an effective means for the state and the government to regulate the shipbuilding industry, must pay attention to the promotion and guidance role of industrial policy.