With the growing demand for offshore wind development and a revival of offshore oil and gas exploration, insiders are expecting a bullish long-term outlook for this sector.
Chinese giant COSCO are also eyeing to win more market share in this division by earmarking $1.5bn to refresh its fleet of heavy lift vessels. The company is planning to build 40 new semisubmersible heavy-lift vessels over the next four to five years to replaces the order ones.
The company now has an existing fleet of 69 vessels and an orderbook of 22 vessels currently according to Clarkson database.
Besides, the yard is also said to seek for more market share in the jack-up rig newbuilding market as some Singapore buyers such as Keppel struggles to find slots for 2013 and early 2014 delivery.
Insiders say that COSCO’s offshore business is at a turning point and maybe it could be faster than expected for the yard to transform to an offshore plant builder.