Chinese shipyards have concluded a tough year in 2015 with significantly reduced new orders, which have also been increasingly concentrated in the hands of fewer shipbuilders.
According to latest figures released by the Ministry of Trade and Information Industry, China’s shipyards saw new orders in 2015 plunged by 47.9% year-on-year to 31.26m dwt.
Among the new order tonnage, the top 10 Chinese shipyards as identified by the ministry accounted for the lion’s share at 70.6%, which is a 15.1 percentage point increase from 2014.
Furthermore, figures from China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry (Cansi) showed the country’s 54 leading yards received more than 90% of the newbuilding market share.
Industry observers estimated that there are around 300 shipyards left in China but only less than 100 have active day-to-day operations. The industry recession and severe consolidation have shut down a few thousand shipyards, mostly speculative ones, since 2010.
In completed vessel tonnage, Chinese shipyards reported 41.84m dwt in 2015, representing a 7.1% increase from the 2014 figures. Again, the top 10 Chinese yards controlled the majority of production with 53.4% of market share.
Up until 31 December 2015, Chinese shipbuilders sat on an orderbook of 123.04m dwt, down 12.3% compared to the previous year, according to the ministry’s figures.
The big shipbuilding nation China took up 38.3% of global share in completed tonnage, 34% share in new orders and 36.2% share in order backlog.
Chinese shipyards are going through a difficult period and more companies are expected to shut down, but a leaner and more competitiveness shipbuilding industry is in the making after the current phase of weeding out the bottom-rung yards.
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