Shipbuilding is undergoing an unprecedented growth in the
birthplace of the industry in China because the city wants to
become the largest such base in the world.
In the middle of January, the Shanghai Shipyard Corporation
completed a 3,500-TEU (20-foot equivalent unit) container vessel,
North-Philippa, at its new dock on Chongming Island. The ship,
already delivered to the German buyer, is the biggest container
vessel built on the mainland under an intellectual property
right.
The shipyard will build 36 more such ships by 2009. After
shifting to Chongming, the shipyard is expected to raise its annual
output capacity of 1 million deadweight tons (DWTs).
"We're confident about our competence in building large
container ships or bulk cargo ships for buyers across the world.
We've enough orders for the next few years, and the same applies to
many other shipyards in the city," a source in the shipyard
management, surnamed Qian, said yesterday.
Shanghai reportedly has 19 large and medium-sized shipbuilders
along the Huangpu River and the Yangtze River estuary. In the past
year, the city has built ships that add up to a record 5 million
DWT, accounting for more than one-third of the country's total
production.
Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Corporation (SWSC) alone had a
311.5-DWT total in 2006, a rise of 44 percent over the previous
year. The shipyard, still undergoing expansion, has orders for
about 80 ships now that are worth more than US$5 billion.
He Baoxing, an official from SWSC, said the second phase of the
shipyard would be completed this year.
Many local shipbuilding companies, most of them State-owned,
have aggressive expansion plans like SWSC. Some of them along the
Huangpu River are now shifting base to the Changxing and Chongming
islands on the mouth of the Yangtze so that they can build even
bigger ships and increase their production capacity.
The largest shipyard of the world is already in construction on
Changxing Island, about 7 kilometers away from the mainland. It
will occupy a stretch of 8 kilometers on the southern part of the
island and is expected to be fully operational by 2015. Its annual
production capacity would be 12 million DWTs, more than double the
city's total output last year.
The Changxing shipyard's first-phase, including four docks on
the 3.4-kilometer coastline, is scheduled for completion by
2008.
It will then be home to the over 140-year-old Jiangnan Shipyard,
the oldest existing shipbuilder in China. After shifting to
Changxing, it will be twice its present size, and have an annual
production capacity of 4.5 million DWTs in 2010, company official
Zeng Ming said.
"Local shipyards' expansion on the two islands will surely raise
the city's total production, and the growth in the shipbuilding
industry will help stimulate other industries, such as machinery
and electronics," said Yang Qi, professor of Shanghai Jiaotong
University's School of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Civil
Engineering.
The international shipbuilding base has gradually shifted from
Europe to East Asia, because of lower management and labor
costs.
China's total ship production touched 14.52 million DWTs last
year, or 20 percent of the global production, Xinhua said. That
made the country the biggest shipbuilding base in the world after
South Korea and Japan. And some experts say China could overtake
the two countries by 2015.
"The gap between China and the top two is shortening as Chinese
shipbuilders keep improving their management and technologies. The
Changxing project will be a big shot in the arm." Yang said. "And
Shanghai will continue to lead the domestic shipbuilding industry
because it is home to the major shipyards."
(China Daily February 2, 2007)
