China’s largest shipbuilding region, Jiangsu Province appears to be standing in a life-or-death situation although it has showed a pretty stable status since the global economic crisis.  
Jiangsu economic and information technology commission has announced industry’s Q1 performance on May 9, saying that 44 privately-owned shipbuilders out of 66 failed to win new orders and none of major seven builders could ink a contract, with 30% of large corporations recording a loss.  
Jiangsu is known as the first shipbuilding province however, the earnings performance during the first quarter showed a severe downtrend. The province’s newbuilding delivery was recorded to be a combined 3.721m dwt which is a 7.4% increase comparing with the same quarter of last year however the scope of increase has plummeted with decreasing orderbook standing on 832 vessels of 37.912m dwt with a remarkable decrease of 27.7% year-on-year.  
Moreover, on May 7, Jiangsu-based COSCO (Lianyungang) Shipyard was reported to shut down due to a protracted loss. In fact, shipyards which have slots on schedule for a year and a half are resorting to an expedient with delaying lead time and several small and mid-sized yards are faced by a crisis of closing the business.  
Back in 2007, Chinese shipbuilding industry enjoyed a boon period which came in 30 years, however, it immediately turned around to a downtrend and still in depression. Nonetheless, this recession is only the Chinese matter while professionals in China call this as ‘the fourth shock’ in shipping history.  
According to data from Jiangsu economic and information technology commission, profit margin of shipbuilders in Jiangsu appears to be sharply decreasing from 22% recorded in 2010 and four companies out of 13 majors reported a loss during the first quarter of this year.