News / January 16, 2009

Newbuilding orders may fall 40% in China
Newbuilding orders at Chinese shipyards will slump 40% this year derailing its efforts to become the world’s number one shipbuilder, a top Asian bank claims. Dwindling demand for bulk carriers following a crash in the sector’s earnings will account for the majority of the shortfall, BOC International says.
Cancellations at China State Shipbuilding Co, which has an orderbook dominated by bulk carriers, will also hit China’s market share, according to a note from the investment bank. China’s share of the shipbuilding market slipped to 36% in the first 10 months of 2008. A year earlier its slice was at 42%. Conversely, South Korea’s portion was lifted by nearly a tenth to 46% over the same timeframe. China has stated it wants to overtake South Korea as the dominant shipbuilder by 2015.



Big three’s investment in facilities goes on
Impression of Gunsan Shipyard of Hyundai Heavy Industries Despite global economic recession, South Korea’s major shipbuilding companies are planning to continue investment in shipyard facilities in 2009 for the improvement of productivity. Large shipbuilders with three to four year long order backlogs will continue to make massive investment in facility expansion this year following last year, seeking to ‘digest’ the heavy workload more smoothly. Samsung Heavy Industries plans to invest 800bn won ($579m) in shipyard facilities this year which is the same level to a year earlier. About 250bn won will be used for facility maintenance caused by depreciation and the rest will be invested in reclamation work, workshop and ship-block factory construction, etc. for the expansion of its Geoje Shipyard. With the aim of increasing shipbuilding output to 70 ships per year, Samsung is recovering land from the sea to form a site of 280,425㎡ off Geoje Shipyard and it is also planning to construct a block factory which would produce 100,000 tons of ship blocks per year once completed. Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering plans to invest 500bn won to raise productivity. It will replace the 450t Goliath crane at its No.2 dock of which expansion work was completed in last November with a 900t Goliath crane. It will also add one more floating dock to existing three. Further, Daewoo will increase the number of its 3,600t floating cranes to two by introducing one more to largely boost productivity. It had invested just 190bn won in 2007 but it laid out 760bn won last year in the expansion work of the No.2 dock, etc. In case of Hyundai Heavy Industries, a firm business plan has not decided yet but grand scale projects are already under way such as the construction of the Gunsan Shipyard which would have the world’s longest dock (700 meters) and the world’s largest Goliath crane (1,600t) once completed, so a considerable amount of investment in facilities is expected this year as well. It had invested as much as 1.638trn won last year. An official at shipbuilding industry said, “Big three’s order backlogs stretch over more than three years and they need to enhance productivity. Unlike other industries, shipbuilding is forecast to keep investing in facilities this year too.”


Russian shipyard developing ice-class cargoships
Russian shipyard Krasnoye Sormovo is developing a new 7,600-dwt river-sea dry cargoship. The MNP-owned shipbuilder is teaming up with sister company Volga-Caspian Design Bureau to design the vessel, which will be able to carry hazardous cargo.
The ice-class ships will be classed by the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping. They will be 141.6 metres long with a 4.75 metre draft. The loaded speed will be 10.3 knots and the vessels will accommodate 12 crew.