Reaching new heights! China has surpassed Greece to become the world's largest shipowner country. Structure | China | Shipowner
Greece has always been the world's largest shipowner due to its renowned ship king and numerous shipping companies. According to the latest data from the world-renowned shipping research firm Clarkson Research, China has surpassed Greece as the world's largest shipowner in terms of total tonnage. At present, the fleet size held by Chinese shipowners has reached 249.2 million tons, accounting for 15.9% of the market share, and the focus of world shipping is shifting.
China surpasses Greece to become the world's largest shipowner
At Dalian COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry, nearly 10 ships ordered by Chinese shipowners are being intensively constructed. This year, over 80% of all new shipbuilding orders from shipyards come from Chinese shipowners.
Wang Yu, Executive Director of Dalian COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry Co., Ltd.: Currently, the entire shipbuilding market is still quite hot. Based on the urgency of ship owners' demand for ships, major shipyards are also increasing their horsepower. For example, the ships delivered by our company recently are basically slightly ahead of schedule. Major shipowners are also placing orders for container ships, and our Chinese shipyards are actually more willing to give our limited shipyard resources to our domestic shipowners to build and invest in a larger shipping market.
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The latest data shows that the leading fleet size of Chinese shipowners is mainly due to the rapid growth of China's economy and trade. After more than 20 years of rapid development, China has become the world's second largest economy, with a total economic output of 15 trillion US dollars. China's foreign trade has also risen to become the world's largest, accounting for 12.5% of the world's total foreign trade. Becoming the largest shipowner country highlights China's position in the international maritime industry.
Zhang Shouguo, Executive Vice President of China Shipowners Association: Becoming the largest shipowner country greatly enhances our confidence in developing the shipping industry. The increase in fleet size has driven a larger shipping force, resources, and talents, which has also enhanced our shipping industry's strength and ability to serve the country's economy and trade, laying a better foundation for achieving the goal of becoming a shipping power.
Advanced manufacturing supports rapid growth of China's fleet size
The world's largest fleet supported by Chinese shipowners is not only the recovering shipping industry, but also China's advanced shipbuilding industry. In the first half of this year, China ranked first in the world in terms of shipbuilding completion, new orders received, and handheld orders, and its shipbuilding capacity has reached the forefront of the world.
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With the gradual expansion of China's shipowner fleet, shipowners are placing more and more orders with Chinese shipyards. To this end, shipyards have significantly improved shipbuilding efficiency through the introduction of new technologies and intelligent management of production lines.
Wang Yu, Executive Director of Dalian COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry Co., Ltd.: Our shipyard has also invested a lot of funds in green development of intelligent manufacturing, equipped with a batch of advanced intelligent manufacturing equipment, and increased corresponding manpower. The booming market drives shipowner customers to have a greater demand for early delivery of ships. By improving their production capacity, they can deliver projects early and bring better profits to shipowners.
Not only has there been progress in production technology, but the shipbuilding industry has also provided equipment support for the autonomy of China's fleet. The proportion of Chinese shipping companies booking ships domestically is 100%, relying on China's world advanced construction capacity and level, truly contributing to the development of maritime and transportation powers.
Li Yanqing, Secretary General of the China Shipbuilding Industry Association: The construction of China's fleet presents many new technological characteristics, which will inevitably put forward new construction requirements for China's shipbuilding industry. The close cooperation between China's shipbuilding and shipping industries is a collaborative research and development process. Vigorously promoting close cooperation and market sharing between upstream and downstream shipbuilding and shipping has invisibly created an opportunity for us.
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Structural Optimization: Chinese Shipowners Start Ordering High Value Added Ships
With the gradual expansion of the scale of Chinese shipowners, the required ship types have become increasingly diverse. Domestic shipyards have also started accepting orders for high value-added ship types from Chinese shipowners this year, such as LNG ships, also known as liquefied natural gas ships.
China Shipbuilding Dalian Shipbuilding has undertaken a total of 34 shipbuilding orders so far this year, including 13 orders from domestic shipowners, of which 10 are high value-added ship types - LNG transport ships. Compared to previous years, this year, shipyards have received a new record high in domestic LNG carrier orders from shipowners.
Li Lin, Assistant Director of the Marketing Department and Director of the Civil Ship Business Department of China Shipbuilding Dalian, said that the ship types ordered by Chinese shipowners this year are becoming increasingly high-tech and high value-added in our factory. The main ship types include LNG transport ships and some other bulk cargo ship types. This year, the total contract amount reached 24 billion yuan, and according to the contract amount statistics, Chinese shipowners accounted for about 56% of orders.
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As a high value-added ship type, LNG transport ships can only be built by individual shipyards in 5 countries worldwide. But with the continuous increase of shipbuilding capacity, three shipyards in China have the strength to build LNG transport ships, which greatly shortens the construction cycle of domestic LNG transport ships. The improvement of capabilities has brought new demands, and Chinese gas and other energy industry shipowners have started to place orders to strengthen their energy fleet and enhance their comprehensive strength.
Li Yanqing, Secretary General of the China Shipbuilding Industry Association: China's fleet construction has made great progress, but we still need a more balanced structure to meet the needs of bulk product imports and exports. The development of the Chinese economy has provided us with a foundation, and the shipping and shipbuilding industries have set foot in the entire market rhythm and seized opportunities to develop in the overall trend. Chinese shipyards are ready to support the construction of our Chinese fleet's independent fleet.