After more than one year intensive and dedicate preparation, 2011 China International Marine Port & Shipbuilding Fair （CIMPS） grandly opened in Nanjing this month. The fair is the largest and most influential maritime show in Jiangsu Province at present, which is the important platform for exchange and communication between Jiangsu and the world shipbuilding industry. At the fair we caught some interesting pictures by which maybe we could see something about Jiangsu or even China’s shipbuilding industry from them. 
When stepping into the exhibition hall, the booths of those domestic and overseas big shipyards caught your eyes right away with its fabulous ship models and gorgeous multimedia promo, such as Finnish ship engine giant Wartsila, local Rongsheng Heavy Industry, New Century Shipbuilding and New Yangzi Shipbuilding.
In stark contrast with the above picture, we found three small shipyards shares one booth at the corner of the hall with a few posters hung on the walls. “We have been idle for years without receiving any orders, we come here to see if any luck to get an order,” one of the yard officials said.
The above phenomenon could be regarded as the miniature of Jiangsu shipbuilding industry. After the shipbuilding industry investment boom, many medium and small shipyards began to become idle, which directly injured Jiangsu shipbuilding industry concentration and wasted many quality coastal resources. In the next few years, shipyard mergers and acquisitions would become more intense and the yards would have to strive to get through the survival of the fittest.
Similar to the contrast of large shipyards with S&M ones, the gap between shipyards and equipment enterprises was also very obvious. The “Golden Belts” in the hall were all occupied by grand-looking shipyards while the rest were crowded with supporting exhibits such as chains, lights and so on.
Tao Yonghong, director of Economy & Management College with Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, said it’s the shortage of independent innovation that led to the situations. Many shipyards are incapable of developing equipment business while the current equipments can’t exceed the imports in terms of quality. Tao put forward that we could only improve this by realizing excellent quality as well as establishing global services and emergency response mechanism.
Apart from the mentioned two points, the discordance of the scale and the economic benefits for Jiangsu even Chinese shipbuilding industry also worth our meditation. In 2010, one out of 7 vessels was built in Jiangsu globally whose newbuilding output, oerderbook and new orders took lead nationally for five successive years.
Many shipyards, like Rongsheng and NACKS, have successfully built world-class vessels and offshore plants through technical research. However, they still lag behind in building mega and high value-added vessels. Take containerships for example, Rongsheng can build 6,500TEU’s and COSCO is able to build 10,000TEU’s while Korea shipyards are building 18,000TEU’s - a great gap to overcome.
Some Chinese shipyards have realized their disadvantages in technology, resources utilization compared to Korean and Japanese yards. Jinling Shipyard stated that they would target at high-end vessel in future to improve the conditions and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding also revealed its new aim to implement capacity integration and enter offshore plant market.
Sources analyze that uncertainty of shipbuilding industry is increasing with the new orders going through fluctuations in the first quarter. The 12th five-year is expected to be a critical period for Jiangsu shipbuilding industry to adjust its industry structure and enhance its competitiveness.