Focus Interview | Dream of Building a Big Ship Exploring New Trails - Running on a New Track in China | Shipbuilding Industry | Dream of Building a Big Ship Exploring New Trails
A giant ship named "Aida Magic City" is the first domestically built large cruise ship in China. It completed its first sea trial on July 24th and docked at the Waigaoqiao Port in Shanghai. It is expected to conduct a second trial in the third quarter of this year. The construction of large cruise ships is a concentrated display of a country's equipment construction capacity and comprehensive technological level. Today's program, let's first follow this giant ship and experience the latest pulse of China's shipbuilding industry.
At around 7am on July 17th, with a long whistle, China's first large cruise ship, "Aida Modu", built by Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China Shipbuilding Corporation, slowly sailed out of Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Terminal 4 and began its first sea trial.
During the 8-day and 7-night voyage, this massive vessel, which is 24 floors high and has a total tonnage of 135500 tons, completed tests on key systems and equipment related to ship performance. At the same time, regional testing and verification were conducted on two key technologies that run through the entire life cycle of cruise ship design and construction, namely vibration noise and safe return to port. The test items all meet the design specifications and have been approved by the shipowner's ship inspection.
Li Yanqing, Secretary General of the China Shipbuilding Industry Association: This trial voyage was completed one day earlier than the original plan, indicating that our product design, construction, and the reliability, quality, and organizational management of the entire supporting system have been verified, all of which are the best results, worthy of trust and trust.
As a super large single unit electromechanical product, the number of parts installed on domestic large cruise ships exceeds 25 million, which is 5 times that of the C919 aircraft and 13 times that of the "Fuxing" high-speed railway, making construction extremely difficult. From the official start of construction and ignition in October 2019, to the successful completion of all test projects for the first sea trial, it marks a milestone leap for China's first large-scale cruise ship to achieve "from blueprint to blue ocean, from Shanghai to sea", and also signifies that China's shipbuilding industry is about to fill the gap in the field of large-scale cruise ship design and construction.
Li Yanqing, Secretary General of the China Shipbuilding Industry Association: Large cruise ships are different from general transportation ships. The construction requirements and supporting industry chain of cruise ships are mostly different from the previous transportation ship industry chain. Therefore, building large cruise ships is also a very important process to drive the construction of new industry chains.
Not only large cruise ships, but in recent years, China's shipbuilding industry has continuously made new breakthroughs in high-tech ship research and construction. The world's largest 24000 TEU super large container ship was successfully delivered, and the world's first 100000 ton smart fishery large-scale breeding factory ship and the world's first fourth generation jack up wind power installation ship were completed. Last year, China's liquefied natural gas transport ship orders reached 55, accounting for over 30% of the global market share from 12% in 2021 to a historic high in 2022.
Data shows that in the first half of this year, China's shipbuilding industry completed 21.131 million deadweight tons, a year-on-year increase of 14.2%; The new order volume was 37.669 million deadweight tons, a year-on-year increase of 67.7%; The handheld order volume was 123.77 million deadweight tons, a year-on-year increase of 20.5%. Not only does the three major indicators of the shipbuilding industry continue to lead the world, but China's new order volume in the first half of this year also accounted for 72.6% of the international market share.
Li Yanqing, Secretary General of the China Shipbuilding Industry Association: The completion volume demonstrates our ability to work, the number of orders we hold reflects our safety boundaries in production, and the number of new orders we receive reflects our market capabilities.
Since the mid-20th century, the global shipbuilding market has gradually shifted from Europe to Asia, and in the 21st century, China's shipbuilding industry has rapidly risen. In 2010, China became the world's largest shipbuilding country. Since then, not only has the total number of shipbuilding orders remained the top for many years, but the main product types have also gradually become more diverse. Currently, out of the 18 major ship types, China has 12 new booking units that rank first in the world.
Li Yanqing, Secretary General of the China Shipbuilding Industry Association: From January to June this year, the three mainstream ship types, including steam ships and special ships, including PCTC, are currently in a balanced undertaking state. Over the past decade, we have been persistently adjusting our product structure, moving our ships towards higher value vessels from the low-end to the mid to high end.
The shipbuilding industry demonstrates a country's comprehensive industrial strength. Although China became the world's largest shipbuilding country in 2010, at the same time, the main high-end technology and high value-added shipbuilding at that time were still controlled by Japan and South Korea. Low end overcapacity and insufficient high-end capacity have become a major challenge faced by China's shipbuilding industry.
Li Yanqing, Secretary General of the China Shipbuilding Industry Association: More than a decade ago, in terms of product structure, our share was relatively large, but very single, with bulk carriers accounting for more than half. At that time, we had just experienced the global financial crisis in 2008, and after the contraction of demand, our overcapacity was very obvious.
China Shipbuilding Dalian Shipbuilding is a major large-scale shipbuilding base in China, which has created more than 80 "firsts" in the history of Chinese shipbuilding, witnessed the development process of China's shipbuilding industry from small to large, and also experienced the pains of growth in the past decade.
Jiang Hongliang, Minister of the Production Management Department of China Shipbuilding Dalian: In 2013, 2015, and even until 2020, the shipbuilding industry has always been in a sluggish stage, with overall product demand and value being relatively low, making it very difficult for enterprises to survive. Our overall acceptance volume and shipbuilding order volume have significantly decreased compared to the previous 20 years.
The shipbuilding industry belongs to the high-end equipment manufacturing industry and plays an indispensable role in building a maritime power.The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China made the strategic deployment of "building a maritime power", and the reports of the 19th and 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China further clarified the deployment of "accelerating the construction of a maritime power". The construction of a maritime power cannot be separated from the high-quality development of the shipbuilding industry. How to achieve the transformation and upgrading of shipbuilding products from conventional ship types to high-tech and high value-added ship types is the only way for China to advance from a shipbuilding power to a shipbuilding power.
The Chinese Jiangnan Panamanian bulk carrier, built by the oldest shipbuilding enterprise in China, Jiangnan Shipbuilding, is the first internationally renowned brand in China to be listed and traded in the international charter market. In 2012, the market for bulk carriers was booming, and Jiangnan Shipbuilding, which had already achieved mass production, had a promising development prospect. However, at this time, Jiangnan Shipbuilding made an unexpected decision to suspend accepting new orders for bulk carriers and prioritize research and construction of high value-added ships. What strategic considerations are behind this, and where will the transformation start?
Although bulk carriers can bring stable profits, in the long run, high-tech and high value-added ships have greater profit margins. To become a world-class shipbuilding enterprise, it is necessary to transform towards the mid to high end. Liquefied gas ships are one of the key drivers for the transformation of Jiangnan shipbuilding products, and the company has proposed to "return to the gas ship market.". Thanks to years of technological accumulation and pioneering spirit, Jiangnan Shipbuilding has gained the trust of international shipowners.
Hu Keyi, Chief Expert of China Shipbuilding Group and Director of Jiangnan Shipbuilding Science and Technology Committee: We did not have any previous achievements, but we presented our research results, showing how this ship was designed, how the cabin was made very complete, and how it was considered inside the cabin and the system when it was lifted onto this ship. So, experts from European shipping companies believe that the Jiangnan factory has done a lot of preparation work, and now there is nothing lacking, what is lacking is orders. Our first batch of ships received 8 VLGC orders. After we made this ship type, we formed a batch and now we have orders for over 50 ships.
Moving towards the mid to high end market through independent innovation, transformation and upgrading has become a common choice for many domestic shipbuilding enterprises in the past decade. Just as Jiangnan Shipbuilding is vigorously exploring the field of large liquefied gas ships, Dalian Shipbuilding is also transforming towards green and high value-added shipbuilding in accordance with the new environmental requirements put forward by the international shipbuilding industry. A new Panamanian largest 16000 container ship that they have just delivered is not only bulky, capable of carrying 16520 standard containers, but also a green ship that meets energy conservation and environmental protection throughout its entire lifecycle, from design to operation to dismantling. Multiple high-end and green ship orders have been scheduled for 2027.
It is worth noting that a series of structural changes in high-end new ship types have also brought about an improvement in the capabilities of related industrial chains such as machinery, metallurgy, and electronics. All crack arresters for large container ships have been domestically produced, and the localization rate of duplex stainless steel for chemical ships has increased from less than 50% to over 90%. In addition, the widespread application of digital manufacturing and intelligent equipment is also changing the face of China's shipbuilding industry.
In the digital shipbuilding laboratory of Jiangnan Shipyard, wearing AR glasses can be used for integrity inspection on-site. Due to the complexity of traditional 2D drawings, pipeline interference may occur during ship construction, requiring rework and modification. This unnecessary rework typically accounts for over 10% of the shipbuilding cycle. After adopting 3D modeling design, shipowners and construction personnel can have a more intuitive understanding of the drawings and complete the design and construction. In addition, intensive robotic arms can efficiently complete multiple processes such as welding and assembly on the production line. When intelligent manufacturing encounters the shipbuilding industry, large blocks are also full of great wisdom.
Over the years, China's shipbuilding industry has not only achieved numerous breakthroughs in "China's number one", but also created many "world firsts", from following the lead, from introducing imitations to independent innovation, from the initial bulk carriers to today's large cruise ships, from being once "poor and impoverished" to becoming the world's largest shipbuilding country. Nowadays, China has become a shipbuilding powerhouse with global influence, with an annual shipbuilding output accounting for over 40% of the world market share, and the industry's annual revenue exceeding 500 billion yuan. The continuous orders and frequent reports of successful delivery are attributed to the outstanding innovation ability and strong technical strength of China's shipbuilding industry. In the journey of exploring the starry sea, China's shipbuilding industry is constantly writing a new era answer sheet for building a maritime power with a progressive attitude.
Editor | Gao Qi, Zhou Hong, Huang Lu
Camera | Ruan Hongyu, Xu Peng, Li Xinfeng, Zhu Huang Yingzhe
Editing | Miao Jialiang
Planning | Yu Renshan Cui Xinyu
