China has invited offshore shipyards to send in their applications for reviews by the relevant authorities on the drawing up of a so-called ‘white list’, similar to the existing list for conventional shipyards.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued a notice, asking potential companies to put forth their applications to their respective shipbuilding authorities for an initial review, before sending them to the ministry by 31 August 2015.
State-owned enterprises are to submit their applications first to the parent group for the preliminary review.
The Ministry added that it has requested China International Engineering Consulting Corp (CIECC) and China Classification Society (CCS) to put together a judging panel to review the applications. The team is to submit the judging criteria to the ministry by 30 October this year.
The latest statement by the government has not yet spelled out what advantages would the ‘white listed’ offshore companies benefit from. In looking at the ‘white list’ of conventional shipyards, they would receive preferential access to bank loans and banking support.
While the ministry also did not specifically say that this exercise is to draw up a ‘white list’ of offshore yards, it pointed out that it aims to encourage the offshore yards to come up with their own inhouse design team, make technological progress and innovation, improve on project management, and promote industry consolidation.
In a statement issued earlier this year, the government said the listed offshore yard will need to make an annual investment of at least 2% of their yearly revenue into design and technology.
Chinese offshore shipyards are known to be lagging behind their western counterparts due mainly to the former’s poorer quality in terms of design and finishings.
Last year September, the Ministry announced a first batch of ‘white list’ shipyards, which after some additions and dropouts there are now 60 state-owned and privately owned listed companies.
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