Under troubled market, Chinese shipbuilding industry appears to make alterations according to changing times and circumstances.
Chinese shipbuilders are active in up-grading commercial ship, as well as winning orders for offshore facilities, high-value vessels, green ship, etc, according to the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry (CANSI).
For instance, Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding (SWS) inked four 180,000-dwt eco-friendly bulkers from U-Ming Marine Transport, which reduced fuel consumption by 15%. Also, Yantai CIMC Raffles Offshore booked an order for one semi-submersible rig last month.
This represents that Chinese marine industry takes actions against recent depression in the market, changes in demand and new environmental regulations. Moreover, Chinese government makes up and carries out policies which boost domestic demand.
Statistics reported from CANSI said, during January-February period, 57 numbers of China's major shipbuilding and shipbuilding-related companies see decreased revenue by 7.3% to CNY 33.6bn ($5.32bn) year-on-year, while net profit fell to CNY 1.88bn, down by 26.2%.
Meanwhile, faced with depressed bulker market by February this year, a cumulative 22 vessels of 1.18m dwt bulkers have been cancelled, 0.8% of orderbook as of the end of February and 61.1% of overall orders cancelled in 2011.
During the same period, China's major yards' ship repair stood at 512 vessels, down by 1% y-o-y.
Major yards have declined overall revenue and average net profit by 15% and 35% each.
CANSI analyzed that slow recovery in global economy and newbuilding price being unlikely to hike caused large-scale structuring of Chinese shipbuilding industry. Despite an estimated 70m-dwt delivery for 2012, relatively slow ordering activity would keep orderbook sliding.
Also, most of newbuildings scheduled for delivery this year had been ordered in low-margin after global financial crisis in 2008. Therefore, shipbuilders would see decrease in earnings.