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According to the latest statistics disclosed, the number of orders received and completed in the first three quarters of China's shipbuilding industry maintained the leading position in the world, and in September there was a trend of higher month on month. In October, China's shipping enterprises won new orders for large LNG carrier products, demonstrating their competitiveness in high-end manufacturing worldwide.

China maintains the first place in the world in terms of new volume of ships

According to the latest data disclosed by China Shipbuilding Association on October 27, in terms of deadweight tons, from January to September, China's shipbuilding enterprises accounted for 45.9%, 53.6% and 48.0% of the world market shares respectively in terms of completed volume, new orders and hand orders. South Korea and Japan ranked second and third in the number of new orders, accounting for 31.3% and 10.2% of the world market shares respectively.

Li Yanqing, secretary-general of China Shipbuilding Industry Association, revealed that, according to the preliminary statistics from January to September, the profits of the whole industry reached nearly 5 billion yuan, an increase of 33.7% over the same period last year.

In terms of specific indicators, in the first three quarters of 2022, 27.8 million deadweight tons of shipbuilding were completed nationwide, down 8.4% year on year; 32.45 million deadweight tons of new ship orders were received, a year-on-year decrease of 40.1%. By the end of September, the orders for handheld ships were about 103 million deadweight tons, up 11% year on year. Based on the previous data, it is estimated that the completion and new arrivals of China's shipbuilding enterprises in September have increased significantly month on month compared with the previous month, with the increase of 25% and 89% month on month respectively.

The trend of order recovery is consistent with that of global shipbuilding order recovery in September. According to the latest statistics of Clarkson, in September 2022, the world signed 72 new orders, and the deadweight tonnage increased by 25% month on month.

The continuous recovery of the completed quantity is even more surprising. Since the beginning of this year, most of the shipping enterprises have had full orders. The repeated epidemic and extreme high temperature in the second quarter have further disrupted the pace of ship production. The latest data shows that China's shipbuilding enterprises completed 9.3 million deadweight tons in the third quarter, up 5% from the second quarter. Cao Bo, deputy director of the Statistics and Information Department of the China Shipbuilding Association, said that the shipyard had a greater willingness to "deliver the ship quickly": first, there were more ship positions to receive orders; The second is to recover cash and improve the company's profit structure; Third, expand market share to occupy a favorable position for enterprise transformation.

From the perspective of ship types, the proportion of new orders for container ships and gas ships has increased significantly since this year. In terms of deadweight tonnage, the proportion of container ships in newly received ship orders increased from about 30% to 35%, and the proportion of gas ships increased to 11.2%. In contrast, the proportion of bulk carriers and oil tankers has declined.

At the same time, the global "green ship" orders in the first three quarters of this year hit a new record. According to the latest statistics of Clarkson, in the first nine months of 2022, 59% of the newly ordered ships use clean alternative fuels in terms of deadweight tons, a record high, and only 31.5% in 2021. LNG power is the mainstream choice, 57% of new ship orders use LNG power, and more and more ships tend to choose multi fuel/fuel reservation design, so as to provide more choices in the future.

In terms of price, global bulk carrier and oil tanker prices fell in September, container ship prices remained flat, while large LNG carrier prices continued to rise. Clarkson data shows that the price index of new container ships in September was flat month on month, while the price indexes of new bulk carriers and oil tankers fell month on month. On October 21, Daewoo Shipbuilding announced that it had won the construction contract for two new 174000m3 LNG ships, with the cost of a single ship reaching 250 million US dollars for the first time in history.

Continuous breakthrough in high-end manufacturing

At the same time of leading the total volume, China has made new breakthroughs in the field of shipbuilding high-end products - large LNG carrier manufacturing.

In the first three quarters, the volume and price of new orders for large LNG carriers rose simultaneously, and the market share of Chinese enterprises continued to rise. According to the statistics of Clarkson, as of the beginning of October, the order of large LNG carriers ordered this year has reached an all-time high of 128, and the order of new large LNG carriers last year was 86. According to the official orders, China has won 28 orders, accounting for 22% of the global market, breaking the monopoly of 90% of Korean enterprises in the past.

Since October, Chinese enterprises have successively announced new orders, further improving the market share of Chinese enterprises in large LNG carriers. Industry insiders are optimistic that the domestic LNG ship market share will reach 25% by the end of this year, and will increase significantly to the level of 35% - 40% in a few years.

On October 24, China Shipbuilding (600150) announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Jiangnan Shipbuilding had signed a letter of intent for the construction of two 175000m3 LNG carriers with a Singapore shipowner, with a total contract amount of about 460 million US dollars. It is expected that the ship will be delivered before the end of July 2027.

On October 26, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding announced that it had signed two 175000m3 LNG carrier construction contracts with European shipowners. This is the first time that Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Industry has taken orders for large LNG carriers. After becoming the Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding, Jiangnan Shipbuilding and Large Ship Group, the company has become the fourth domestic shipping enterprise to enter the large LNG ship building market, and also the first private one. It is worth noting that the Yangtze River shipping industry just obtained the GTT company qualification certification necessary for manufacturing large LNG carriers at the beginning of September.

In addition, China Merchants Group Heavy Industry, which just obtained the certification of GTT Company in October, may also be close to a good thing. According to International Ship Network, China Merchants Heavy Industry (Jiangsu) may have signed a letter of intent with Danish ship owner Celsius Tankers to build 4+8 180000 m3 LNG ships. According to the outflow, the price of each new ship is about 231 million dollars. If all the alternative orders come into effect, the total order price may reach an amazing 2.772 billion dollars.