Shipowners are becoming “more demanding than ever” on their ship inspection which is causing delays in the delivery of vessels, China-based shipbuilder JES International said.
JES was hit by downward revision in contract prices for some vessels due to deferment of delivery last year, leading to yard to plunge to a 2012 full year net loss of RMB122.33m ($19.63m) as against a net profit of RMB202.9m.
“During the present difficult times in shipping industry, customers are less keen to take delivery of the vessels due to lack of chartering contracts and much lower resale values for their ordered vessels,” JES said.
“Hence, some of the customers became more demanding than ever on their ship inspection which inevitably resulted in delays of the delivery. Delayed vessels occupied the yard's resources and affected the delivery of next following vessels as well. As a result, the group has to negotiate deferred delivery of some vessels that resulted in discounts on the contract prices.”
Singapore-listed JES posted a 13.8% year-on-year decline in revenue of RMB2.54bn.
The challenging conditions of the conventional shipbuilding sector has led to JES venturing deeper into constructing offshore support vessels. To date, it has an offshore orderbook for four platform supply vessels (PSVs).
“The group is striving to gain pace on its order wins for offshore vessels so as to ensure steady development of this segment,” JES said.
Construction of dry bulk carriers continues to contribute the major portion of the shipyard's revenue.